Supergirl Review: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Milly Alcock owns the screen as Kara Zor-El in a visually thrilling superhero adventure packed with heart, action, and cosmic spectacle. Read our full review of the action-packed superhero adventure now playing in cinemas. Craig Gillespie delivers an entertaining space adventure that introduces a fearless new hero to the DC Universe.
Rating: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Director: Craig Gillespie
Release: June 26, 2026
Language: English
Cast: Milly Alcock, Eve Ridley, Jason Momoa, Matthias Schoenaerts, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham
Supergirl arrives with one very important thing working in its favour: Milly Alcock.
After her brief but memorable appearance at the end of Superman, Alcock steps into her own film with the kind of confidence that usually takes actors several films to find. Her Kara Zor-El is not Superman with a different name. She is angrier, less patient, more willing to get her hands dirty, and carrying a grief that she processes through dark humour and alcohol rather than earnest speeches about hope. It is a more interesting character than most superhero origin films bother to create, and Alcock plays every dimension of it with complete conviction.
The story, loosely based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s graphic novel Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, follows Kara as she bumps into a young alien girl named Ruthye, played by Eve Ridley, whose family has been murdered by a ruthless space pirate named Krem. When Krem also poisons Krypto — Supergirl’s dog, and at this point her only real companion — Kara finds herself reluctantly pulled into an interstellar quest for justice and an antidote.
The film is at its best when it focuses on the relationship between Kara and Ruthye.
Ridley more than holds her own alongside Alcock. Ruthye is stubborn, grief-stricken, impatient, and brave in a way that sometimes gets ahead of her actual capabilities. The push and pull between the two of them — mentor and mentee, neither of them particularly suited to that dynamic — gives the film an emotional spine that keeps you invested through the slower stretches.
Then there is Jason Momoa as Lobo, a galaxy-famous bounty hunter who crashes into the story with the energy of someone who has been waiting their entire career for exactly this role. Momoa is absolutely magnetic here — looser, funnier, and more genuinely dangerous than he ever felt in the Aquaman films. His scenes with Alcock crackle with the kind of comic chemistry that superhero films often attempt and rarely achieve.
The villain, Krem, played by Matthias Schoenaerts, is the film’s weakest link.
He is detestable enough to serve his purpose, and Schoenaerts gives the character a cold menace that makes him physically convincing. But there is very little depth to him beyond his cruelty, and a film this character-focused deserves an antagonist with more texture to push against.
The action sequences are inventive and visually distinct — Kara’s fighting style is more aggressive and unrestrained than her cousin’s, and the sci-fi setting gives the set pieces a freshness that most earthbound superhero films cannot match.
Also Read: Little Brother Review
A few story choices feel rushed. A subplot involving young women kidnapped by Krem deserved considerably more weight than it gets, and some small tweaks to Kara’s Krypton backstory feel like unnecessary revisions to something that was already tragic enough.
The music is the film’s most consistent stumble. The score is largely forgettable, and at least one needle drop in the climax pulls you completely out of the scene.
But these are complaints about a film that is, fundamentally, a lot of fun.
Supergirl proves that Kara Zor-El has more than enough personality to carry her own story — and that Milly Alcock is one of the most exciting screen presences working in blockbuster cinema right now.
Supergirl is now playing in cinemas.