Supergirl is Flavorless

✨Perhaps the real Supergirl was the friends we made along the way.✨

The following is a direct quote from the co-CEO of DC Studios, James Gunn: “I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies. It’s not because of home screens getting so good. The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.” He went on to say, “We’ve been really lucky so far, because Supergirl’s script was so f–king good off the bat.”

So anyway, Supergirl’s biggest issue is its terrible screenplay.

The story is inconsequential, clichéd, and boring, with horrible pacing, and relies heavily on plot conveniences to move the story forward. Here and there, you can find glimples of the famous “S” symbol on the iconic outfit; glimples of hope. Somewhere in the writing stages, there might have been a really solid story outline about overcoming our traumas and growing up. Unfortunately, though he wasn’t officially in the director’s chair, James Gunn’s filthy producer paws are all over this film.

Since DC’s rebooted universe started with 2025’s Superman, James Gunn has been doing everything to try to make it work. To give him some credit, we are only 2 movies in, and rebuilding the brand after the disastrous DCEU is not easy. But he is not even trying. Superman and now Supergirl prove that. Money-wise, Superman did not break even, and Supergirl’s opening numbers are not great. IGN reported that it made only $68 million worldwide on a production budget of around $170 million. That is what the industry insiders refer to as not good.

Supergirl is filled with human trafficking, on-screen brutal murder of families, and somehow also Seth Rogan as a little scrotum-looking alien. James Gunn just cannot let a story be serious, which drags the story down. The film is filled with Guardians of the Galaxy-esque music, even literally having our main heroine, Supergirl (Kara), have the exact same orange Walkman headphones as Star-Lord. Gunn didn’t even try to hide his laziness. I am not even going to go after the actual director, Craig Gillespie. He has directed nothing like this before; he’s best known for I, Tonya and Cruella.

Online discussion around an action sequence at the end, in which they play a cover version of the song “The Middle,” was a major reason I became curious enough to see this film in theaters. And yeah, wow, it did not fit the scene at all. Like, #OMG. And, yes, the horrendous song choice takes you out of what could be a really cool action sequence where we finally get to see Supergirl actually being heroic in her suit. What should have been an epic hero moment becomes a cringeworthy joke with no punchline.

Director Gillespie has been credited as saying on this song choice, “It was down to the very last week, and I gotta give it to James for that one.” Nooooo. You’re telling me that the decision to use this horrible rendition of a great song over a sequence where Gillespie (in the same interview) said there were 45 other song choices was James Gunn’s? #shockandawe. This speaks to a larger issue with the film: it is a lame copy-and-paste of Guardians of the Galaxy. Is that what every DC film is going to be under Gunn’s leadership? Gunn is a one-trick pony, and no one is surprised anymore.

The main villain is a joke at best. I would like to remind you all of one of the villains in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Taserface. Remember how it was funny when Rocket Raccoon made fun of him for his name, but it was not only just a funny joke throughout the film, but also showed Rocket’s character and struggle to embrace the problems he has inside? Now, imagine if Taserface were taken seriously. That is the film’s villain, who, for the sake of extreme plot convenience, paralyzes Kara’s dog and takes her ship. I don’t know his name; I’m not going to bother looking it up, and I don’t care. He sucked. We will call him Lameface for the rest of the review.

The film pairs Kara with a little girl who witnesses Lameface kill her family in front of her. Kara is meant to mentor her over the course of the film, leading to her own development. The only problem is that this girl is one of the most annoying and worthless characters I’ve seen on screen in some time. Kara keeps trying to tell her not to kill Lameface because it will haunt her. Let’s just say the film makes Kara a bit of a hypocrite and has her go against the film’s main theme of moving on.

Kara herself was the best part of the film. Actress Milly Alcock really gives her all, and I commend her for that. The bad part is that the movie barely gives her any depth, and the script treats her like an idiot. If I were a diehard Supergirl comic fan, I would hate how they treat her in this adaptation. On multiple occasions, she could have stopped Lameface, but the script has her fly in other directions for no reason other than that if she got hold of him, the movie would be over.

One of the few moments of quiet, without a generic pop song or a cover of one playing, comes from Kara explaining how her homeworld, Krypton, died. This scene, I felt, was the only glimpse of her as a character beyond “I drink because I can’t get over my past.” It was shocking, like, they actually tried to give her some depth. Having her deal with these emotions, rather than getting away with whatever she wants and justifying it with “Something bad happened to me a long time ago,” felt like the right message to present to young girls who may look up Supergirl. Overall, the new lore about Krypton’s destruction was a compelling element that creatively evolved the age-old story.

Without James Gunn’s involvement, I don’t think this film would have ever come to fruition. It is a shame that, without James Gunn’s involvement, there is a story deep beneath the surface, gasping for air. I wish I could tell all you DC fans out there that the movie is good, but that would not be the truth.

In 2 movies, I can tell the vibe and feel of this new cinematic universe, and I will not be participating in it anymore. Supergirl could have been a really emotional story about crawling out from the rock of shame and trauma. Instead, it is a flavorless Guardians of the Galaxy rip-off with bad writing, an inconsistent tone, and awful music choices.