Editor’s Note: Critical question: was Freeline Media critic Mike Fried initially too rough on the new Supergirl movie? In his latest review, Mike has some second thoughts about the wonder girl. Read on!
By MIKE FRIED
Okay so I wanted to see Jackass: Best and Last … but because I am an old man, my local Regal cancelled the movie in favor of the little jerkweeds who had to go see Toy Story 5 or Minions (what the fuck is a minion, anyway????) so us old folks are shit out of luck. But I wanted to get some value out of my Regal Unlimited because I might have been too harsh on Supergirl, based on comments from friends.
And I was.
Supergirl
3.5/5
Before Krypton explodes, Zor-el and his wife Alura escape to a segmented portion of the planet called Argo City that was jettisoned from Krypton before it exploded — and is therefore called “the chunk” (Marlon Brando jokes come to mind here).
But there is Kryptonite in abundance and people start dying. Zor-el and his wife have a daughter, Kara. When people start dying, Zor-el sends teenage Kara and her dog Krypto, to Earth where the superhero formerly known as Kal-el has been living. Years later, Supergirl is party girl traveling from planet to planet looking for that good time. She turns down a request for revenge from a young girl she has a run in with; some ol’ dirty basterd who poisons Krypto now has three days to live. But now Supergirl is forced to hookup, reluctantly, with the young girl because the same person who has the antidote is the person from whom the young girl, Ruthye, wants revenge against.
This is a really gorgeous-looking film with great production design and the cinematography making the dreariest of places look good. The first half of the movie was a terrific setup in regards to the growth of Supergirl from immaturity and growing up and understanding the mission that Zor-el sent her on (as opposed to that shit head Jor-el, who was totally about conquering worlds) which is to “protect those who can’t protect themselves.”
Eve Ridley as Ruthye, Kara’s reluctant companion, is absolutely terrific and is so good she actually steals the film. Matthias Schoenaerts is wasted as the bad guy Krem, who looks like Pinhead from Hellraiser. He plays the role as if he was from Central Casting. He’s not bad but he’s generic. I appreciated Jason Momoa’s turn as Lobo the second time around, but he is not an actor and is around for action and comic relief. David Corenswet’s Superman is merely a cameo.
I don’t know if it is just me, but I’ve always felt that the DCEU special effects were worse than in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and this is just another example. The MCU feels like work went into the CGI, placing the actors in the middle of the effects, whereas here the work just felt like it was done on the cheap, creating everything (including the actors) from the computer scans. I even felt that way about last year’s Superman, but the effects were still considerably better than in this film.
There is the most threadbare of plots in a just okay script by Ana Nogueira that basically relies on typical superhero tropes. However, I appreciated the creation of the Kara/Supergirl character and her character arc throughout the film especially as rendered by Milly Allcock. Yeah, I know girls just want to have fun, but Alcock plays Kara/Supergirl as a cross between Party Girl and Tank Girl – but she needed this particular mission to grow because it made her understand her mission. Plus, if the bad guys ever watched John Wick, you know that you don’t mess with another person’s dog.
But at least in the context of this film, her performance was quite good as she began growing up throughout the course of the film; however, I will say that the best part of the film was the ending moments between her and Superman, so I am hoping that her character is toned down a bit and gains the heart and perspective that Superman does for Man of Tomorrow.
MY VERDICT: WATCH IT!
P.S.: Fuck Woody and Buzz and Minions (whatever the fuck they are) and all the little jerkweeds who got my Jackass cancelled!
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.
