Supergirl (1984) – Review

Supergirl begins in Argo City, similar to Superman: The Movie’s look at Krypton. The futuristic hipsters here in Argo learn about the universe, while Zaltar (O’Toole) crafts some weird artistic shit, also known as a tree. What is a tree?? A lovely thing that grows on Earth, where Kal-El went… Maybe other Kryptonians can venture there? Zaltar certainly hopes, and tells Kara Zor-El (Slater), Kal-El’s cousin, all about it.

Argo City itself sits in Innerspace, a pocket dimension of some sort, and didn’t explode like Krypton did. Yay. So, Zaltar looks to leave. He cannot contain himself to this city as his head is purely brimming with ideas. Venus will be the first stop. Kara thinks it’s such a good idea, but then a very strange mosquito ball thingy called the Omegahedron rips a hole in the power source of the city and things go to hell as it is lost in the cosmos. Maybe it’s on Earth.

This event cements that no one can leave Argo City though! Too bad Kara just can’t stop botching everything, and winds up taking Zaltar’s possible exit through the binary shoot. As Kara flies off in her weird orb, all signs point to Earth receiving another mediocre superhero film, and likely one with slow pacing.

For this first-time viewer, this film doesn’t add much to the Christopher Reeve Superman-verse at all. Sure, this gives an attractive element for female viewers with a powerful protagonist, but unfortunately, they saddled her with a weak ass story, beleaguered dialogue and plain weird scenes. I like the character of Kara in the comics; however, this iteration portrays her as semi brainless, and makes her foes simple one-dimensional thugs and lowlifes.

It seem most of the very solid actors included in the cast were there for the payday, as was the case with plenty of the other Superman sequels of the era. They do what they can with the script and aren’t that bad all things considered, but the whole atmosphere is a bit goofy and only brings so much of interest. This movie is not total trash, yet is too basic and dated to warrant much praise. Thankfully it is pretty short, but I did at one point say “Holy crap, there is still that much left?”

There is also a ‘Director’s Cut’ which runs an additional 15 minutes or so, and while I have not seen it, descriptions are it improves storyline and fleshes out characters. For some reason the United States theatrical cut got rid of a few bits of the second half in editing. While the Theatrical cut does sound like the inferior version potentially story and character wise, I am not sure I can recommend adding another chunk of time to the viewing experience either.