A review of 'Supergirl' (2026), the return to cinema of this superheroine 42 years later

Since her first appearance in a comic book in 1959, Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin, has only starred in two feature films.

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The first film, starring Helen Slater in 1984 and directed by French filmmaker Jeannot Szwarc, was a resounding failure. Perhaps that explains why it took this character no less than 42 years to star in a new feature film.

The new "Supergirl" movie premiered this Friday, June 26th, and stars Australian actress Milly Alcock, who gave a very good performance as Meg in the Australian series "Upright," released in 2019, and whom we already saw in the new "Superman" movie released last summer. That fleeting appearance already hinted at the style of this Supergirl: a hard-drinking, edgy, and rather laid-back superheroine, perhaps an attempt to connect with a younger generation that might sympathetically view those flaws.

This film explains why Kara Zor-El has such an unusual attitude in superhero movies, unless we go back to the 2008 film "Hancock," starring Will Smith, whose protagonist was a complete disaster until he decided to stop being one.Something similar happens with "Supergirl": this girl is the way she is because she has problems, and perhaps this film will encourage some young people to understand that their attitude toward life can not only change things, but also change them for the better. After all, superhero movies show us moral role models. We don't go to these kinds of movies to see the worst version of ourselves.

This film is not receiving good reviews and its release has been a box office flop. To be fair, it must be said that its arrival in theaters has taken place on a very poorly chosen date: "Supergirl" is competing with "Toy Story 5" (a powerful Pixar release that has a highly successful saga in its favor) and "Disclosure Day", Steven Spielberg's most recent creation Spielberg, the great genius of entertainment. To that we must add "Backrooms", an atypical film that has been a huge success and has already been playing in theaters for three weeks. Although Milly Alcock gives a very good lead performance, the film has certain flaws in its narrative and in the story itself, something that can be attributed to the director, Craig Gillespie.

Nevertheless, "Supergirl" is an entertaining film with good action scenes, and it's certainly above average for summer releases (although this summer has been somewhat exceptional). Even so, I liked last year's "Superman" film better. A special mention should be made of a practice that has become widespread in cinema, but which is a mistake in this type of film: the foul language will appeal to many young people (it doesn't offend me; I'm hardly a role model in this regard), but it's not very edifying for the children who might see this film, and who will undoubtedly be drawn by the character. Tolkien was able to tell us about tremendously evil beings without falling into that trap, creating one of the best literary works of the 20th century, "The Lord of the Rings." Perhaps current cinema is making a mistake in this regard. Here's the trailer for this movie: