Review of SUPERGIRL (2026): Clark's Cynical Cousin

June 24, 2026

Kara Zor-el (Milly Alcock) was a Kryptonian like her cousin Kal-el a.k.a. Superman (David Corenswet), so she also had superpowers when she was on Earth under its yellow sun . On her 23rd birthday, she decided to spend it on a planet with a red sun, in order that she can get crazy drunk, with only her naughty white dog Krypto beside her. That night in a bar full of rowdy crowd of drunkards, a young teenage girl boldly appeared at the doorway.  

This girl Ruthye (Eve Ridley) had witnessed her whole family perish at the hands of a space criminal named Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), heartless leader of the  Brigands. She swore to avenge their death by seeking out Krem and kill him with a sword that her father Elias Knoll (Ferdinand Kingsley) had forged. That night, she entered that rowdy bar to request for someone to help her do in her quest. Will Kara step up?

We first saw this Milly Alcock version of Supergirl in a post-credits cameo in "Superman" (2025). She was not the typical charming, well-behaved and heroic Supergirl portrayed by Helen Slater in first "Supergirl' film (1984) or by Melissa Benoist in the TV series "Supergirl" (2015 - 2021). Alcock's Supergirl was unkempt and appeared to have had too much to drink, indicating that this Supergirl will be breaking the usual mold of the character. Seeing Alcock play Supergirl this way can be off-putting at first, but she would eventually win us over. 

A flashback tells about how Kara's parents Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and Alura (Emily Beecham) was responsible for a "bottled" fragment of Krypton to survive after the rest of the planet exploded. Kara was conceived later and grew up to be a teenager before she was sent off to join Kal-el on Earth. This was very different (but easier to understand) than the mind-bending Kryptonian time warp paradox in the comics -- how she was supposed to be older than Kal-el on Krypton, but became younger when she arrived later on Earth. 

Because of this, this new Supergirl turned out bitter and rebellious, very opposite in character to her too-good-to-be-true cousin Kal-El. While Kal-el never knew his real parents nor the explosion of Krypton and grew up with loving Earth parents, this Kara actually knew her real parents and experienced being sent away to Earth apparently against her wishes. This contrast of characters between Kal-El and Kara was very much played up here, with comical effect. Kara's first impression of Superman's costume was a memorable line. 

Eve Ridley's Ruthye Marye Knoll was headstrong and stubborn, which puts her in risky situations that went against Kara's plans, complicating her mission. Like Flip in "Slumberland" (2022) and Garrett in "A Minecraft Movie" (2025), Jason Momoa plays another happy-go-lucky character here as notorious mercenary Lobo, which he again portrayed in what seemed to be an exaggerated version his naturally playful character in real life. It was good to see David Corenswet back as ever-supportive Superman, but he did not participate in any fights here. 

Like most dog-lovers in the audience, I certainly wished there was more of Krypto. He provided much emotional moments as he did laughs, so it was too bad that he was out of action for a major part of the story. The musical soundtrack of unexpected pop hits in the most unlikely scenes was quite fun contrast. The best scene was that when club standards "The Girl from Ipanema" and "Cheek to Cheek" were being sung by a female lounge singer on a stage to accompany one of the chaotic bar fights where Kara was taking on everyone else.  

This is a rated PG film, with some parts of which already flirt with an R rating. The fight scense can be quite violent, but there won't be blood and guts frankly spilled on screen here. There was also a side story about the Brigands gathering girls in different planets with the intention of marrying them off to be raped in order to populate their all-male planet -- a truly uncomfortable idea. While the plot was really rather predictable and Schoenhaerts's villain was bland, Alcock's unique spunky take on the title character still kept this afloat. 6/10