A Review of Supergirl Movie

Supergirl is a delightful movie, which stars Helen Slater in the lead role as the heroine.  The basic plot is that Kara Zor-El and her mentor Zaltar lose Argo City’s Omegahedron power source.  Kara decides to go to Earth to retrieve the Omegahedron, and she gains super powers like her cousin Kal-El/Superman.  Meanwhile, Selena, a witch, possesses the Omegahedron, and uses it for wicked purposes.  The stage is set for a showdown between Supergirl and Selena over the fate of the Omegahedron, Argo City, and the Earth.  Eventually, Supergirl triumphs over Selena, and returns the Omegahedron to Argo City.

Movie Positives:

Helen Slater’s Kara Zor-El is a genuinely likeable character!  She exudes heroism, strength, and gracefulness.  For example, Supergirl tells Selena, “I don’t scare easily.”  Also, Slater’s Supergirl uses a lamp post charged with electricity to defeat an invisible monster.  Finally, Kara is pretty charming as she navigates new Earth customs like correctly entering rooms, typing a letter of recommendation to gain admittance to the Midvale School, and kissing.

The flying scenes are absolutely brilliant! I love how Helen Slater expresses Kara’s enjoyment of flying around.

Jerry Goldsmith’s music for the film enhances moments in the film like Selena’s magical creations raining down destruction on Midvale, the desolation of the Phantom Zone, or Supergirl searching for the Omegahedron around the vicinity of Midvale.  Of course, the absence of music in a film can be appropriate too.  The quietness as Kara searches Selena’s fortress in her attempt to save Ethan is pretty spooky and suspenseful.     

Kara finding inspiration for a last name from a framed picture of Robert E. Lee: “On Earth I’m Lee… Linda Lee.”

Faye Dunaway’s Selena and Brenda Vaccaro’s Bianca are very funny and campy together.  Dunaway and Vaccaro really boost each other’s performances as evil witches.

Movie Negatives:

The Ethan character and his relationship with Linda Lee did not work for me.  I wish the film contained more moments of Linda trying to stop Ethan’s advances: Ethan: “Hello.” Linda: “Oh, no.  Not now.”  Or the filmmakers could have changed the Linda and Ethan relationship to being friends.  Supergirl could have uncovered that Ethan was magically drugged.  Afterwards, Ethan could have totally been embarrassed, but then help Kara find Selena’s abandoned amusement park.  An Ethan and Linda friendship or team-up would have worked better.

Lucy Lane telling Linda, “…don’t go showing it off (Linda’s math skills) because nobody’s going to like you.”  It is a pretty poor message to send women: that they should not be true to themselves, or show their intelligence.  Still, Linda being pleased with herself about correctly solving a sixth dimensional geometry question (“I don’t know.  Sixth dimensional geometry.  I never could do it before!”), and her confused look over Lucy’s comment (it makes sense since math knowledge appears to be valued in Argo City) adds some positivity to the Midvale school scene.

Overall, Supergirl is a winsome movie!  The film stays true to many elements of the Supergirl mythology: Supergirl’s Kryptonine parents Zor-El and Alura being alive, Supergirl operating in secret, and the Linda Lee alter ego.  Whenever I watch Supergirl it generates positive feelings, inspires a belief in selfless heroes doing the right thing, and identification with the trials of adapting to a new environment.