Although hopes were high Supergirlthe movie has become a sad thing. Critics were put off by the project, and its lackluster box office performance has the potential to cost WBD somewhere between $100-120 million. Movies stream all the time, too Supergirl not connecting with the audience probably wouldn’t be such a big deal if we knew DC Studios had a lot of exciting stuff coming down the pike. But Supergirl sounds like it could be the first sign that Gunn’s grand plan for the DCU is crumbling before it gets off the ground.
Loosely based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely Supergirl: The Woman of Tomorrow comic miniseries, new Supergirl the film follows Superman’s cousin Kara (Milly Alcock) as she embarks on an interstellar bender that culminates with her dog being poisoned by a gang of sex-trafficking gangsters. Unlike Superman (David Corenswet), Supergirl doesn’t really have a problem killing her enemies – especially when they try to stop her from saving Krypto. But with an orphan girl (Eve Ridley) along for the ride, Kara tries to set a good example (read: no murder).
Supergirl struggles to make its titular heroine feel different from Superman
However Supergirl from director Craig Gillespie and writer Ana Nogueira, everything about this movie — from its focus on distressed animals to its needle drops — makes it feel like some of Gunn’s previous work. Supergirl’s drunken brawls in outer bars and scenes of her wandering through space on a junky starship look like they could have been lifted from any of Marvel’s. Guardians of the Galaxy features. You can hear Nogueira driving Gunn’s comedic style as the film introduces a new face as bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa disturbingly in comically accurate clothing). Momoa’s presence is a constant reminder of how fragmented the DCEU is, but Lobo isn’t the draw. Supergirl down.
As refreshing as it seemed Superman glossing over Clark Kent’s tragic story over and over again, Supergirl spending much of his time reworking the details of Krypton’s destruction. Flashbacks to Kara’s past are meant to help us understand the tragedy she’s been living with, and see why her sense of morality is so different from her cousin’s. But rather than fleshing out Kara’s feelings in any meaningful way, the movie makes light of her drug use while sending her on a journey of conventional values that is lacking in whimsy or spectacle.
One of the SupergirlThe most glaring issues are how it struggles to find organic ways to make its heroine feel different from Superman. Aside from his brutality related to his volatile attitude, he is just another indestructible alien who occasionally needs to recharge his energy by burning the yellow sun. The movie tries to give itself some stakes by constantly putting Kara in situations where she is left without her abilities. But in the second sequence where Kara is taken out by a bunch of dudes, you get the sense that DC Studios wasn’t really locked into the process of making this story explode.
That’s surprising considering how Gunn previously insisted that DC Studios “wouldn’t put the full script into production” because the project had already been announced. Half-assed is the perfect definition of SupergirlThe whole vibe, and being the studio’s second major feature doesn’t bode well for the future of the DCU. Supergirl it was necessary to show that Gunn had a solid plan to build a new universe behind some of DC’s lesser characters. Although we’ve seen how that can work for HBO The maker of peace series, it was unclear whether the studio would bring it to the big screen. The whole point of rebooting the WBD superhero movies was to put DC Studios in a better position to compete with Marvel – which is on the verge of its own massive reset. But while Marvel has few reliable aces like X-Men and youth Spider Man A movie up its sleeve, DC actually starts at the beginning.
Some of the SupergirlProblems may not have been noticed as easily if there had been more time before that too Superman‘s theatrical debuts. The two movies come out so closely that they emphasize the general similarities of their characters, and it makes it seem like DC can be a lot more comfortable when it comes to releasing recurring projects. This calls into question Gunn’s decision to prioritize a series about Green Lanterns and a Clayface film before introducing new versions of well-known heroes like Batman and Wonder Woman. WBD is still planning to make a sequel for Matt Reeves Batman that won’t be part of the DCU, but Gotham of it all might make audiences excited to see the new Bane/Deathstroke movie that the studio is reportedly prioritizing next Supergirldysfunction.
All of these B-tier projects and other facts give the nascent DCU the air of evil that has plagued Sony’s universe of Spider-Man spinoffs since its inception. And looking at WBD’s upcoming merger with Paramount Skydance, it seems very possible that the DCU may not come together the way Gunn originally intended. Although it may be next year Tomorrow’s Man could steer things into a tight spot, it feels like it’s now possible for DC to release another Super-movie that feels very similar to the ones we’ve seen before. It wouldn’t be the first time WB has found itself on the ropes with a comic-related problem, but it could be the studio’s last chance to fix these things.
