Supergirl

DC has done it again.

That's not a compliment.

Miscast, poorly written, badly staged and just plain dull, SUPERGIRL is a boring mess that only comes alive anytime the boys show up.

That's pathetic.

Why is that the Alien franchise can serve up two of the most kickass female action roles of all-time in Ripley and Rain, but DC, after 66 years, can't manage to give Supergirl her due?

While we're at it, why would DC give the Directing reins to the dude most famous for "I, Tonya" and "Lars and the Real Girl"? Craig Gillespie in the director's chair reminded me of when Bond producers hired Marc Forster to direct "Quantum of Solace" after "Finding Neverland". Based on what? Quantum absolutely sucked because Forster thought action scenes were made of cuts so fast you couldn't tell what was happening. At least Forster redeemed himself beautifully 5 years after his botched OO7, with "World War Z" an all-TIME great zombie flick.

Gillespie and his team stage all the action scenes like they ran out of light. The sequences are murky, hard to follow and marred by some pretty stodgy CGI. This film cost $175 million to make. Why does it look like a bargain basement effort half the time? The Krypton flashback scenes look terrific and standout.

The screenplay by newcomer Ana Nogueira is all over the map. The tone shifts in it feel like the final film was edited from a much longer movie. I feel like Nogueira's two favorite films are "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" and "John Wick" and she's tried to create some strange, angst filled mood piece that looks like Thunderdome, but puts a pet in danger to piss off Supergirl, Wick-style.

You'll have lots of time to ponder what in the hell Nogueria was thinking as this thing plods from one gloomy set piece to next in a universal slog.

I don't get Milly Alcock's casting as our Superhero. As a four-minute insert into last year's far superior "Superman", she was kind of quirky and kind of funky. But there is no way she can carry an entire film. She's pretty dull.Think back to DC's original "Wonder Woman" almost ten years ago, starring Gal Gadot. From the moment she stepped on screen, Gadot OWNED the movie. She was fantastic!!!

Alcock feels like she's arrived from some independent film about a semi-alcoholic drunk girl with social anxiety issues. When the entire core of your film is about the "morality" of killing a dude that's murdered your entire family along with thousands of others and he runs an interplanetary female sex slave operation, it seems like your toxic empathy might be a tad misplaced.

Eve Ridley is a bright spot as Ruthye, who's got more fire, determination and desire in her quietest moments than Alcock ever bothers to summon.

The villain, Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) is an also-ran. He could be any nondescript member of Immortan's ragtag, leather-studded entourage in Mad Max. This is your big villain? Schoenaerts is fine, he's just given so little to actually do, it's an interplanetary crime.

The barely third-full IMAX audience I saw it with only came to life when Superman popped up throughout. David Corenswet oozes so much joy, positivity and fun as Superman that he blows Alcock off the big screen like she's a spec of dust. It's all pretty embarrassing.

Then there's Lobo, played with hilarious, cigar chewing, one-liner spewing relish by Jason Momoa. Every time he shows up on screen, the film is instantly the fun that you want it to be. It feels alive, enjoyable, thrilling. Every time he zoomed away, we were all pleading, "NOOOOOO! come back Lobo!!"

The settings are odd. There's a space bus that generates a couple laughs, but it serves as the setting for an action piece that feels shoe-horned in.

The music score by Claudia Sarne is a generic, dull, repetitive effort that feels AI generated in its blandness. Compare it to Rupert Gregson-Williams score and themes for Patty Jenkins superb, aforementioned "Wonder Woman" and marvel at Supergirl's nondescript music that lifts nothing around it.

There's a moment in the final confrontation that sees a needle drop into a song that's supposed to highlight, "inform" and rah-rah the action. It feels like such a pale imitation of superb moments in Gunn's Marvel entry "Guardians of the Galaxy" that it screams desperate. Plus, just imagine the song they choose for that needle drop being part of a thrill ride at Disney World. These idiots can't even get out of their way to pick a great song. Blondie was a superb choice for the film's trailers.

At only 107 minutes long, at least its short. The screenplay is so threadbare it still feels stretched. The final minute of the film is such an uninspired ending that it could literally be a scene in the middle of any TV drama. There's no punch line, no set up, no exciting send off, no....nothing.....

There are NO post credit scenes either, so feel free to escape the theater as soon as that final scene ends. Two different couples around me said at the same time, "That's it??".

Sadly, yes.

Is DC trying to kill off our interest in this new relaunch?

Last year's "Superman" was a good film, carried by Corenswet's perfectly cast charm.

SUPERGIRL never gets off the ground, mired in moody, clumsy action and a main character superhero who has zero desire to be super, or a hero.

What a shame. The worst DC film since Batman V Superman, this thing lands with a loud dusty thud, earning a D. I am not a fan of the Snyder DC films, I AM a fan of Gunn's superhero style, which makes this all the more disappointing.

James Gunn, is this really the vision you had in mind when you took over DC?

The outlook at this point is very murky, just like the "action" scenes in this generic misfire.

Alcock has said that her cape in this film was made from some of the material from Christopher Reeve's cape in Richard Donner's 1978 masterpiece, "Superman". That's the last time that those two films should be mentioned in the same sentence.