Supergirl movie review: Milly Alcock is excellent but the film can’t match her performance

There are no two ways about it. Milly Alcock, the Australian actor who eventually dons Supergirl’s red and blue suit, is excellent.

The Sydney-born and raised actor was thrust onto the global stage four years earlier in House of the Dragon, which is where DC Studios boss James Gunn took notice.

His instincts were correct because she is easily the best aspect of the Supergirl movie, where she quips, scowls, punches, flies and carries great depth and pain. Alcock is particularly great in those scenes with emotional heft, because she is so effective at pathos without histrionics.

For a character whose superpowers allow her to soar above everyone’s heads, Alcock keeps her grounded in the best possible way.

A shame then that the movie isn’t anywhere as good as her performance.

Supergirl is the second feature in Gunn’s rebooted DC screen oeuvre and it, at best, lacks consistency and spark, and at worst, is a messy dystopian chore that is often ugly to look at.

So much brown rust and dust, leading to a climactic action sequence that is trying to be Mad Max but comes off more like Mad Max’s fourth cousin twice removed.

Although some credit to the filmmakers for contriving various ways to limit Supergirl’s powers – the wrong sun, toxins – because otherwise there would be no tension in fight sequences in which she could easily gazump anyone with her pinkie.

The film is set during the week of Supergirl/Kara Zor-El’s 23rd birthday, where she is off on a bender on a red moon planet, which diminishes her powers to that of a semi-regular person but where she can feel the effects of alcohol.

Kara isn’t that keen on sobriety, preferring to numb the pain of her past experiences, which will be revealed through a mid-film flashback to her origins on what remained of Krypton.

She feels disconnected from the universe and all living beings, including her cousin Kal-El/Superman/Clark, but she loves her dog Krypto, the chaotic canine we met during the previous film when Clark had been babysitting the furry scamp.

A key quibble is there is not enough Krypto! The CGI dog was such a scene-stealer in Superman, but Supergirl benches him early to provide a motivation for Kara to break out of her stupor.

Krypto is poisoned by metal-studded villain Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts, who needs his agent to better screen his offers), and the antidote is kept only on his person and must be taken within 72 hours.

We love a character who loves their dog so much they’ll do anything for them (or anything to avenge them in the case of John Wick), so Kara sets off to chase after Krem and his Brigands gang, who also happen to be generally vicious and specifically traffickers of young girls.

Kara reluctantly takes on a sidekick-of-sorts, Ruthye (Eve Ridley), a teenage girl hell bent on vengeance against Krem, who has killed her whole family, and also crosses paths with Lobo (Jason Momoa), a rock-and-roll, motorcycling bounty hunter with an appetite for violence.

Supergirl, directed by Australian Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella) and written by Ana Nogueira, who adapted it from the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow run of comics, is going for a snarky and cool vibe like its titular character but can’t meet Alcock’s performance.

Other than building a world around this character, it’s not doing much we haven’t seen before – predictable story beats, emotional moments buoyed only by Alcock’s ability to sell them, and action sequences that feel both dragged out and rushed.

Even though it clocks in at under two hours, it often feels longer. It’s just not that fun, and it should be fun.

Still, and maybe this is faint praise, Supergirl is mostly watchable because if nothing else, Alcock is so entrancing, it’s hard to not be gripped by what she’s doing.

Rating: 2.5/5

Supergirl is in cinemas