Supergirl – Film Review

Cast: Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet, Jason Momoa

Director: Craig Gillespie

Synopsis: As she heads off-world to celebrate, Supergirl finds herself joining forces with an unlikely companion on a quest for revenge…

Review: As memorable cameos go, Kara Zor-El’s at the end of Superman (2025) would be right up there with the very best. As she drunkenly crash landed into her cousin’s Fortress of Solitude in search of her beloved dog Krypto, she showed herself to be a free spirit. Same set of powers, but more off the chain and eager to let her hair down at every opportunity. A woman with a penchant for partying, preferably on planets with red suns so she can get drunk. No less super, but considerably more jaded and a far cry from the symbol of hope and optimism that Clark represents. After the James Gunn-led Superman and Peacemaker season 2 got this cinematic universe up and running, it made all the sense in the world to pass the torch to her. It is a crying shame that her solo film fails to deliver on its considerable potential.

Shortly after picking up Krypto, Kara whizzes off to the planet Holzherr to celebrate her 23rd birthday, letting loose with the booze flowing in plentiful supply. The morning after a night celebrating is very rarely fun, but in Kara’s case, it’s made even worse when the nefarious space pirate Krem of the Yellow Hills (Schoenaerts) arrives to commandeer her ship and poisons Krypto, leaving him fighting for his life. With a limited window to save her beloved pooch, Kara reluctantly teams up with Ruthye (Ridley) on a quest to find the antidote and get revenge.

After earning well-deserved recognition for her brilliant portrayal of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon, Milly Alcock steps into the role of a superhero with effortless ease. As the young Targaryen princess, she balanced a refined, regal presence with a rebellious streak. It is the latter that comes to the fore at this point in Kara’s life. She may have adopted the mantle of Supergirl, but unlike her cousin, she struggles to adjust to her new life on Earth because of the devastating fate that befell her family and Krypton. Such raw pain and grief lead her to planet-hop and drink as a coping mechanism, a tragic foundation that Alcock brilliantly brings to her performance.

Alongside Alcock, Ridley gives a commendable performance as the young warrior driven by her quest for revenge against Krem after he murdered her family. The chemistry between them takes a little while to click, but they make for an effective duo to root for. Adapting Tom King’s Woman of Tomorrow comic, widely considered the best Supergirl comic, should give screenwriter Ana Nogueira plenty to work with and help it stand out in a very competitive genre. However, despite some fun action sequences and emotional moments exploring Kara’s origin story on Krypton, the script lacks sufficient spark overall and does little to differentiate itself from the plethora of superhero origin stories we have seen in recent years, not least last year’s Superman. Director Craig Gillespie, no stranger to directing films centred around compelling and complicated women (I, Tonya and Cruella), does little to spruce up the rather bland action sequences. Furthermore, with needle drops aplenty, it all just comes across as a hollow imitation of Gunn’s previous directorial efforts.

Schoenaerts’s Krem certainly looks ominous and threatening, thanks to some striking hair and make-up, but not even that can prevent him from falling into the generic and forgettable villain territory that has so often been an Achilles’ heel of superhero movies. While the film might have wasted its villain, at the very least, Jason Momoa lights up the screen with boundless charisma as the bounty hunter Lobo. A dream role for him, and it is easy to see why, as he feels like he was born to play this character. One can only hope the studio plans to have Momoa reprise the role in future films. It is incredibly frustrating that, despite having all the right components to build on the foundations of this cinematic universe and to do justice to this character on the big screen, the film still struggles to take off, even with the best efforts of its superheroine.

Milly Alcock does everything she can to elevate the material she was given, but ultimately a lacklustre script prevents this space adventure from delivering on its considerable potential.

**© Warner Bros, Universal and Amblin Entertainment**

Twisters – Film Review

Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane, Daryl McCormack, David Corenswet, Harry Hadden-Paton

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Synopsis: Years after a personal tragedy, a meteorologist is drawn back into the world of storm-chasing by an old friend…

Review: Mother Nature can be a very beautiful thing, but she also be extremely frightening and deadly if she wants to be. There is no shortage of natural disasters to unleash on anything and anyone who finds themselves in the path of these deadly occurrences. Yet despite the threat these events pose, there is something that is inescapably compelling, and in some cases, inspiring about watching them unfold on the big screen. 1996’s Twister, despite being plagued by a troubled production of adverse weather conditions, is to this day, one of the best examples of a disaster movie, and led to a rise in the number of students who looked to study meteorology. The forecast at the time would surely have predicted a high probability of a sequel. It has taken nearly 30 years to arrive, but it is here, to blow your socks off.

Kate Carter (Edgar-Jones) is a meteorologist living in New York City. Five years earlier, while chasing a tornado with a team to carry out research on how to reduce the storm’s intensity in Oklahoma, tragedy strikes which leaves most of her friends and fellow storm chasers dead, with the only survivor being Javi (Ramos). Such a traumatic experience has taken its toll on Kate, she initially rebuffs an offer from Javi to get back into the world of storm-chasing. However, upon seeing the damaging impact the storms are having and the potential to save countless lives, Kate joins up with Javi and a new team in Oklahoma. When they arrive, they encounter Tyler “Tornado Wrangler” Owens (Powell) a fellow meteorologist, who also happens to vlog his storm-chasing adventures with his eclectic team.

It will not come as news to anyone that tornados can be immensely dangerous, with the most extreme storms capable of reaching wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour and can stay on the ground for more than 100 kilometres. These perils are devastatingly realised in an extremely tense opening scene in which director Lee Isaac Chung really makes the audience feel the intensity of these storms and how one wrong move can be catastrophic. The script by Mark L. Smith, which serves as a stand-alone sequel to Jan De Bont’s classic, shares no mutual characters and no connective gusts of wind. However, in a world with the threat of extreme weather events becoming more and more common, the screenplay makes the wise choice to not tinker with what made the 1996 film so successful. It merely brings it into the 21st century, with all the technological advancements that have happened, to enable those who would be brave/crazy enough to venture into the heart of a storm all in the name of scientific research, or for just the sheer thrill of it because: “if you feel it, chase it!”.

As the meteorologist in the eye of these storms, Daisy Edgar-Jones is terrific as Kate. Her talent for storm-chasing is immediately evident and she brings an abundance of enthusiasm for it. You get the sense that after stepping away from it for several years, she is eager to make up for the lost time. In what has been a remarkable rise for him over the last few years, Powell is also on terrific form as Tyler. He very much exudes that charisma and bravado that was on display in Top Gun: Maverick, who is at first solely in the business of storm-chasing for internet fame and daredevil. Though initially on rival storm-chasing teams, the duo begin to work together when the very real threat of these storms stands to cause catastrophic damage across the region. Such is their palpable chemistry, that it blows the rest of the supporting cast to the sidelines, aside from Anthony Ramos’s Javi who finds himself torn between the friendship he has for Kate, and the investor of his company, who may or may not be involved with some rather shady business practices.

After directing the heart-warming and soulful Minari, Twisters is perhaps not the next film many would have forecast Chung to be as his follow-up feature. Combined with the immaculate direction of the storm-chasing sequences, as he showed with his tender debut feature about one immigrant family’s pursuit of the American Dream, Chung brings real humanity to the film as the relief efforts to help the people rebuild their lives, homes, and businesses are given the necessary attention. It’s all well and good chasing a tornado to get the blood pumping, but the film never loses sight of the devasting impact these storms have on the people whose livelihoods are in their path. Unless you are the daredevil sort, storm-chasing is an adventure you probably won’t want to be seeking out any time soon, but it will provide you with a blustery good time at the cinema and who knows, maybe inspire a whole new generation’s interest in meteorology? Lightning could most certainly strike twice.