REVIEW: “Supergirl” (2026)

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For many of us, seeing the keys to DC Studios handed to James Gunn was more than a little concerning. Yet I remained optimistic, hoping he would do justice to this huge universe that I have long loved. Unfortunately the first film from the rebooted DCU was a souring disappointment. “Superman” was a scattershot mess that was far more interested in being a James Gunn movie than a noteworthy new chapter for one of DC’s most iconic characters.

That brings us to movie #2 in Gunn’s fledgling DCU and sadly the results aren’t much better. “Supergirl” may not be written or directed by James Gunn, but his fingerprints are everywhere. It’s a room temperature superhero movie that is shackled to Gunn’s narrow, self-gratifying style, where more attention is given to irreverent humor and needle drops than meaningful character depth and good storytelling. Even the action fails to energize the experience in any meaningful way.

Many of the problems can be traced directly to the script, which was written by relative newcomer Ana Nogueira (who Gunn has also hired to write the upcoming Wonder Woman and Teen Titans films). Here she tells a fairly generic story that is driven by Supergirl’s rather generic story arc that sees her hunting down one of the most generic superhero villains to date. I wish that were just my vain attempt at clever writing. But honestly, the word “generic” fits this film in so many regards.

Image Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Milly Alcock reprises her role as the overtly rebellious Kara Zor-El. If you remember, she was first seen in a cringy cameo at the end “Superman”, when she drops into Kal/Clark’s Fortress of Solitude to retrieve her dog Krypto. “Supergirl” picks up from there, with Kara and her pup leaving Earth to celebrate her 23rd birthday. And what better way than by drinking herself into a stupor on various red sun planets across the universe?

Much of the story leans heavily into Kara’s angst and attitude. It doesn’t take long to get old, but director Craig Gillespie squeezes everything he can from it. There is an attempt at making it a coping mechanism for her deeper trauma. This comes out via a series of mediocre flashbacks that continues Gunn’s ridiculous rewrite of Kal’s parents as villains. Meanwhile Kara’s folks are shown to be empathetic souls who send their daughter away to be a hero to those in need.

Kara’s slosh-fest is interrupted when she crosses paths with a young girl named Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley). Ruthye is dead-set on avenging the death of her family at the hands of Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts). He’s the ringleader of a band of space pirates called the Brigands. Ruthye tries to recruit Kara to help on her quest for revenge but Kara declines. That is until the film uses Gunn’s favorite (and laziest) trick for cheap emotional investment – animal suffering.

Image Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

After Krem shoots the digitally rendered Krypto with a deadly toxin, Kara agrees to join Ruthye’s hunt. But she only has three days to find Krem and return with the antidote (which he conveniently wears around his neck because why not?). From there it strangely turns into a ‘down with the patriarchy’ story as Kara finds herself fighting a crew of meatheaded marauders who kidnap young “brides” to grow their vision of a male-only society. It’s a twist that adds nothing to the overall movie.

Jason Momoa occasionally pops up playing Lobo, an immortal alien bounty hunter who just happens to be around the same time as Kara. He mostly grunts and growls while bashing in a few heads, ultimately offering little more than fan service. It’s a shame because the menacing Momoa certainly looks the part. But it’s almost as if Nogueira doesn’t know what to do with him, but she throws him into her script regardless.

“Supergirl” is far from the follow-up to “Superman” that the DCU needed, especially for those who were left unfulfilled by the franchise’s kick-off. There’s absolutely nothing original or even memorable about what we’re given here. Even worse, it does nothing to leave us excited for what’s to come. Instead it feels like an assembly line product made in the factory of James Gunn. That may be enough for some. But others will be wondering why they even bothered.

VERDICT – 2 STARS

28 thoughts on “REVIEW: “Supergirl” (2026)”

  4. Watched on Thursday and completely agree. lousy movie. FYI I think you mistakenly marked this Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes

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  5. I was actually far more interested in Supergirl than Superman when they were announced. The last time Supergirl was made into a movie was 1984 and the results were…less than spectacular. I had really high hopes for this one, because it couldn’t be worse than the 1984 movie. Well, it’s still better than Helen Slater’s film, but not by a whole lot. This was a CRUSHING disappointment. The movie was supposedly adapted from the mini-series called Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which was one of the most celebrated Supergirl storylines. They managed to take a great story and make it feel generic. Putting Lobo in there didn’t make any difference.

    Milly Alcock is fantastic as Supergirl, she needed to be in a better movie. Also, this movie is UGLY. Superman had its problems, but visually, it was stunning with the colors popping like crazy. The disappointment with Supergirl actually triggered my depression a little bit. There was no reason for this movie to be this bad. I came around to enjoying Superman, and I may do the same for this one, but I’m really concerned about the future of the new DC Universe. If James Gunn wants to run DC Studios, then he needs to do that. If he wants to make movies, then he needs to focus on THAT. He can’t do both full time. All the wrong decisions that could’ve been made with this movie were made.

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      • Oh, it’ll stay with me for a while, just for the wrong reasons. I wasn’t kidding when I said the movie triggered my depression. I saw it around noon yesterday before I went to work, and I honestly didn’t want to do anything for the rest of the day. It is extremely rare for a movie to disappoint me the way that Supergirl did. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure I want to stick around with this DCU if these first two movies are any indication of where it’s going.

  7. I enjoyed the hell out of this article and it’s critique of desperately trying to follow the james gunn guardians of the galaxy formula, 2 films now ruined by the whimsy of trying to squeeze in these weird 80’s hits or covers of them, rather than letting the films own scores shine through, and thats just one copycat thing they did wrong for both films.

    I need not go further than Keith’s very own first line, “For many of us, seeing the keys to DC Studios handed to James Gunn was more than a little concerning.” Disappointingly our concerns were right, while there was definitely more to enjoy from 2025’s superman it still had that lingering bitter taste of James’ GOTG stylings. This line specifically from Keith hits true for both films “shackled to Gunn’s narrow, self-gratifying style, where more attention is given to irreverent humor and needle drops than meaningful character depth and good storytelling.” The failings of Ana in the screenplay and script absolutely leave me with nervous concerns for the other movies she’s already hired to pen (wonder woman, teen titans) but im hoping she can adapt and grow from this, no matter how naive that hope may be. I believe Milly can definitely make this role work, if only they give her a better script to work with.

    I never thought I’d see the day where a critic comes out guns-a-blazing at gunns formulaic slop in such a relatable way to my own views, but I am definitely glad I finally did. My verdict 3/5.

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    • Thanks for the comments. You definitely have a good grasp of what annoys me most about the movie. It’s such a disappointment to see such great properties handcuffed by such a deep devotion to one director’s overbearing style. I honestly don’t know what to expect going forward.

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  8. Hi Keith — read your Supergirl review.

    I build a free side-project, YouPickBest: readers vote on a ranking right inside the post (no signup, no redirect).

    Made one that fits — best Superman movie: https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-superman-movie-of-all-time.

    For your “The Weight” piece I could build a “best Ethan Hawke role” vote and send the embed code.

    It’s a weekend hobby, not a company — no catch. If it’s useful, great; either way I’d love your honest take. Totally fine to say not for me.

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  10. I think they are great movies, y’all just have lofty dreams of grandeur, thinking they will be some kind of revolutionary movies that will shape the superhero movie industry is sad. At the end of the day, your expectations are set way to high for these movies. They are meant to capture the essence of superheroes and I think they did well and will continue to do so.

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  11. As far as I can tell I’ll be the second one to not understand the hate for Supergirl. I thought Superman could have been much better and absolutely hate them turning his parents into villains, but this movie was over the top action and a lot of fun. My entire family enjoyed it. Was the plot thin and characters stuck on the rails of stereotypical? Yes. But did it showcase her super powers while giving glimpses into the fact she’s human? Yes. And the fight scenes were a blast, literally. We all came out entertained and saw what we expected. Our only disappointment is our favorite character is Krypto and he barely had any screen time.

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    • I genuinely love that you liked it. I always like to hear people’s excitement. Sadly I didn’t have much fun with any of it. I wasn’t interested in any of the characters. I wasn’t wow’d by any of the action. Bummer.

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      • One thing I will say and I don’t know if I’m right or even how to explain what I perceived- a lot of the fighting action seemed to be in the background or off to the side of the screen. I’m not talking about the scene in the bar where it focused on the girl’s face while Supergirl battled in the background, that was designed. But so many of the others seemed like we were missing something.

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