Films and Fiction

I’m beginning to suspect that James Gunn might actually be a Marvel plant within Warner Bros., placed there to ensure the DCU is finished before it’s even begun. There can’t be any explanation otherwise, short of incompetence, for why Supergirl was ever allowed to be made.

After Superman had what could be generously described as a mixed reception last year, Gunn really needed a win to get his universe going. Instead we got this, a sloppy, unoriginal, trope-filled, sleep aid.

The plot of Generic Superhero Flick #841 makes the meanest Liam Neeson action movie into a work of storytelling genius. A pathetic bad guy shoots Krypto with a poison dart that conveniently takes three days to work, so alcoholic Kara goes after him to get the antidote, and meets with some walking, talking plot devices along the way. The end.

The whole movie relies upon convenience and “and then” storytelling to keep things moving. The characters don’t have any connection to each other and no reason for helping each other, except that the plot demands it.

It’s kind of like A Minecraft Movie. Things don’t happen because of the characters making decisions, they’re spare parts. The whole thing is really a series of unconnected scenes, spurred along by dumb contrivance, where motivations, choices, and story don’t matter; everything is just a bridge to the next tired fight scene, which plays out to some forgettable needle drop.

Ruthye is not a character: she’s a plot device to get the story moving. Lobo isn’t a character either, he’s just there to bring some life to a moribund script. Krypto, likewise, is just a device, a very annoying one, like any untrained dog.

As for Krem of the Yellow Hills, the supposed villain of the movie, the only thing I remember of him is that he likes food, I mean really likes it, so much he eats old, soggy cereal out of the sink.

But this is a Supergirl movie, so let’s talk about the eponymous character.

There’s been so much nonsense said about her being “not like other heroes”. She’s messy, broken, an anti-hero even. As if we haven’t had enough of them this last decade. It’s so funny that anyone in Hollywood thinks this is still cool or edgy to do now. It would be more of a statement to actually make a sure, morally sound hero with no trauma.

But even if we accept that this is Kara’s character, it still makes no sense why she’s like this.

We’re supposed to believe that she’s world weary and cynical, with too much tragedy in her life to bear. Pity the movie doesn’t show that though. Sure, she lost her parents in a pretty tragic way, but that’s hardly a unique thing for superheroes.

She goes on about how revenge is bad and will damage Ruthye if she gives in to it, yet she herself has never engaged in vengeance, never had a reason to even.

Kara literally says that her childhood was wonderful. She might have been living on the remains of Argo city after Krypton was destroyed, but she was born there, so had no reference for any other kind of life.

I think the contradiction comes from the fact they changed her origin from the Woman of Tomorrow comic. There she was a teenager when Krypton blew up, and was sent off to help look after baby Kal El on Earth, but due to some timey wimey stuff, he was grown up when she arrived.

This version of her character makes more sense, as she knew Krypton and witnessed its destruction, so can rightly say she had a very different life to Clark. But the version here just comes across as a reckless party girl. That’s fine, potentially, so long as you show some development as she realises her responsibilities, like Tony Stark in Iron Man. But that’s a good movie, so we don’t want to copy that, instead her arc extends so far as to see her actually putting on her proper costume for the last ten minutes of the movie.

I honestly don’t know why this movie was made. It has all the hubris of post-Endgame Marvel, when they thought they could release anything and make a fortune. All I can think is that Gunn greenlit it because the script was finished.

Since taking over DC studios three years ago, James Gunn has hardly been what you might call industrious. Movies like Swamp Thing and The Authority have already been cancelled, he can’t play with Batman until Matt Reeves makes his sequel, and projects like Booster Gold have gone off the radar. Supergirl doesn’t have a great script, but it’s a script, and Craig Gillespie was ready and waiting to direct, so it was made.

As a movie, it’s bad, but as the second film in your brand new universe, it’s a disaster. Projections suggest it could do worse than The Marvels and The Flash. If the DCU is going to survive longer than the Snyderverse, then Warner Bros. really need to get a grip and start with some serious quality control. Audiences will no longer show up to support dross like this simply because it features a character in a cape.

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