*Spoiler Warning*
Despite my usual inclination to disagree with critics, I agree with them on Supergirl. Supergirl could have been awesome, should have been awesome, but it wasn’t.
The teaser trailer at the end of the 2025 Superman movie got me excited to watch an amazing movie. It convinced me Supergirl would be fun, energetic, and protect the universe with Krypto by her side. I felt the teaser trailer promised a movie with Krypto and Supergirl getting into mischief together across the galaxy. Instead, I got a script where Krypto was poisoned early on and was absent for most of the movie.
At the beginning of the movie, Kara Zor-El, otherwise known as Supergirl, stumbles around drunk, getting into bar fights and aimlessly stumbling through life. Then the plot abruptly switches to the murder of Ruthye Knoll’s family, who were killed by a group of bounty hunters, the Brigands. Ruthye decides to seek the Brigands for revenge. While trying to find them, she meets Supergirl. After a fight with the Brigands, Krypto ends up getting shot with a poisonous toxin by the evil villain Krem of the Yellow Hills.
Krem finds joy in killing innocent people, and with a face full of metal piercings, he looks like a rockstar gone rogue. The weirdest part of Krem is his obsession with child brides to continue his all-male race. Throughout the movie, he searches for, kidnaps, and enslaves little girls. Krem’s actions did not make the story more interesting. They just made the plot more confusing.
Reviewer Jake Koyle argues the zip the movie needs isn’t quite there. The missing zip is clearly Krypto. If he had remained at full health he would have brought the zoomies and happy energy only a dog could bring. While Krem, the metal faced and kidnapping villain, brings confusion and weird vibes, Krypto could have been the fluffy sunshine that balances him out.
The worst part of the story was that Supergirl’s heroic deed was murdering Krem for Ruthye, which made the movie feel like a villain’s origin story instead of a hero’s, no matter her reason. The entire movie seemed to be building up to an event where Supergirl finally realizes that she is a superhero. But instead, Krem’s murder just made me feel that Supergirl does not deserve the title of super.
