FILM REVIEW: Milly Alcock Sticks the Landing in DCU’s ‘Supergirl’

When Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El stumbled into Superman (2025) with her dog and devil-may-care attitude, expectations for her solo adventure shot sky-high. Thankfully, Supergirl proves that first impression wasn’t a fluke. 

Adapting Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s beloved Woman of Tomorrow comic run, the film picks up moments after Superman’s final scene. Kara is already three drinks into a lonely 23rd birthday in a dingy, off-world cantina straight out of Star Wars, drowning the grief of losing her home world with the only family she has left, her dog Krypto. 

Director Craig Gillespie has a habit of exploring complex and controversial women in his films (I, Tonya and Cruella, to name a few), and Supergirl continues the tradition. Kara is closer to Han Solo than Wonder Woman. She’s messy, she’s mean, and she’s not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero, that is, until a young alien named Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley) shows up with a sword, looking to avenge her family’s deaths. Kara only signs on once it gets personal. The killer Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) poisons Krpyto, and with three days to save the pup, the girls embark on a quest across the galaxy to find the antidote and exact their revenge.

Since Superman was such a huge hit, it would’ve been easy to copy and paste for the DCU’s second installment. Luckily, this film gives Kara an identity, tonally and aesthetically, all her own. Where Superman leaned into crystalline brights and old-school comic-book camp, Supergirl opts for a warmer, lived-in lighting, which, when paired with the genuinely impressive practical sets and prosthetics, makes Supergirl’s otherworldly setting feel more grounded than Clark’s Metropolis. It reinforces the cousins’ core contrast: Clark sees the good, Kara sees the truth. 

Ana Nogueira’s script translated Woman of Tomorrow to the film format fairly well, especially given that this was Nogueira’s first feature film. The story pays homage to classic western-style revenge flicks like True Grit and Mad Max, unsurprisingly, given these franchises were major inspirations for the 8-issue run. The film adaptation dialed up the action and streamlined the journey, but the result was every bit as complicated and character-driven as the original.

Alcock is the reason all of it works. She threads carefree party girl and grief-stricken survivor together so precisely that both halves naturally feel like the same person. Her portrayal of Kara Zor-El adds complexity and depth to the character that many women superheroes, and even superhero blockbusters as a whole, aren’t usually afforded. She’s clever, but reckless. She’s strong, but she’s self-destructive. Or, as Kara’s mother says, a sharp divergence from their last shared words in the original comic, she’s not kind, but she’s good.

The clear highlight of the entire film is a flashback to Argo City, Kara’s last glimpse of her family before Krypton’s destruction. Where Superman plays as a first-generation immigrant story, Kara is more like a refugee — she remembers exactly what she lost and the legacy she’s forced to carry afterward. It’s a burden she and Krypto are forced to bear alone, adrift in an uncaring universe. However, by the end, Ruthye shows Kara that she isn’t alone and that she has the power to move forward and find her own path. 

The heart of the film is Kara’s relationship with Krypto, who is just as mischievous and adorable as fans remember from Superman. His early brush with death in the first act lands harder emotionally than anything else in the entire film, including the final boss battle. Don’t worry, though — Krypto makes a full recovery and is back to being the lovable nuisance fans know and love.

As Ruthye, Ridley also gave a standout performance. Despite this being her first major screen role, she held her own against her powerhouse screen partners, even with Jason Momoa’s larger-than-life portrayal of Lobo. 

Momoa as Lobo was a holy-grail casting; his wit and charm fit the motorcycle-riding antihero much more naturally than they did Aquaman. While he didn’t have much to do with the main storyline, the character was captivating to watch and stole the spotlight in every scene he was in, leaving fans foaming at the mouth for a potential Lobo solo film in the future. 

Composer Claudia Sarne (Book of Eli, End of Watch) crafts a soaring score that perfectly captures Kara’s journey, building from a lonely piano melody into a heavy, orchestrated, synth-driven theme. While not directed by Gunn himself, Supergirl does continue his signature soundtrack style, with standout needle drops like Wet Leg’s “Catch These Fists,” Hana Vu’s “Care,” and Wolf Alice’s “Smile.” The only miss was a slowed-down cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” played in the middle of the final battle, which would feel more at home in a commercial than a climax, but the other hits more than make up for it. 

Supergirl was facing impossibly high expectations long before filming even began. Not only was it following a lightning-in-a-bottle film like Superman, but, in many fans’ minds, the future of the entire DCU reboot hangs on this one film’s success or failure. There’s a tidy irony in a story about a woman shouldering a legacy she never asked for, anchoring a franchise asking her to do exactly that. 

Did Supergirl surpass those expectations? No, nothing could. Is it anywhere near the genre’s worst offenders? Not even close. It lands comfortably in between: a fun, well-cast watch carried by a star-making performance. 

Fans have even more to look forward to in the next few DCU films. Nogueira is already signed on to pen an upcoming Teen Titans film, as well as a Wonder Woman reboot. Alcock’s Supergirl is also slated to appear in Superman: Man of Tomorrow in 2027, so there’s a lot more of our hungover heroine on the horizon. 

3/5 shots.