Alcock is the kind of jolt the DCU was in for, and Momoa doesn’t so much join Supergirl as put his foot through it with a smile. The word on the street from early viewings is that the film has its wobbles, but people are already making up their minds if this more punk, less polished version of Kara Zor-El is one to get behind.
It hits screens on Friday, June 26, 2026, right in the thick of some superhero weariness and franchise soul-searching. Coming off the heels of last year’s Superman and all of James Gunn’s talk of a wiser DCU, you have to wonder: will a little dishevelled charm do the trick?
For now, the answer is yes, with some caveats. Rotten Tomatoes is in the low 50s to 60s after a few dozen reviews, which is about what you’d expect for a film where the acting is strong but the writing can’t quite keep up with the voltage.
Performances setting the tone
Don’t make the mistake of thinking Alcock’s Kara is some saint in a cape. There’s an air of detachment to her, a look in her eye and a set to her brow that says don’t try her. In every scuffle she has a certain hard-nosed style, and when you see the old wounds, you let the soft side show. That’s what the critics are latching onto.
Then you have Lobo, and he is the movie’s straight-up rush of adrenaline. Momoa comes in with a biker’s attitude and makes even the dullest moments a bit of a ruckus. He’s magnetic when he’s on screen and you’re left wanting him back once he’s gone.
Even Joe Russo has put in a good word for her, putting out a post to say Alcock is super in the part and shouldn’t be subjected to the kind of online flak she’s been getting. It’s a sign of a shift toward judging the work for what it is, not the noise surrounding it.
If you listen to the fans, here’s the gist of it:
– Alcock is all about the grit
– Momoa has a swagger that’s hard to ignore
– They have more to give than the script does
– We need more Lobo in these parts
– The moments of weakness in Kara ring truer than the one-liners
What Supergirl is trying to be
Under the helm of Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella), this is a PG-13 space-western of a sort, with some of the spirit of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in it. You won’t find any of that boy-scout sheen here; it’s all dust and dents and things having to mean something.
Made by DC Studios and Warner Bros. for the new era of the DCU, it’s meant to be its own thing. No need to do your homework on the multiverse, just a run through some unfriendly territory. Gunn and Safran have put their stamp on it to keep the focus on the people, not the mythology.
Gillespie has a way of making it look like Mad Max in zero-g. The tech is well-worn, the stunts have a physicality to them. When Kara goes up against a wall, it’s not just for show; you feel it.
How the story plays out
This isn’t the farm girl you might be used to. She’s from a piece of Krypton that’s been put through the wringer, and she’s seen some ugly stuff. The movie is all about testing how much of that she can put up with before it shows.
Krem, a pirate with a taste for human trafficking, is the one who riles her up. After he makes an example of Ruthye Marye Knoll’s family and poisons Krypto, Kara is in for a very personal kind of justice. It’s an odd pairing, but it works.
And then Lobo shows up to ruin everyone’s plans. A bounty hunter with no time for anyone else’s agenda, he makes a mess of every confrontation. There are some looks back at Alura and Zor-El to explain why Kara is so guarded, and a small moment with Superman to even it out.
Why critics are split
The ones on board with it will tell you it’s a taut, fun ride that doesn’t bog you down with the usual info-dumps. They like that it stays grounded in emotion, in the grief and the self, even when it’s going to the ends of the universe.
Others aren’t as forgiving of what they consider to be some unoriginal moves. You will see some panning the film as “super-horrendous” and making fun of a plot they can be boiled down to: “Kill Krem! Save the dog!” Then there are the ones who think the bar scenes in space have been done to death in a galaxy we know all too well.
On the flip side, you have those who say the movie is all over the place, lurching from one bit of snark to the next without any new tricks up its sleeve. They’ll point to a villain with no depth, CGI that doesn’t hold up, and some music choices that just don’t work. For a film of this length, it has a way of tiring you out.
The film’s vibe is put under a microscope, too. There’s punk rock in the Blondie covers and the way the story is told, but a few see a corporate thumb on the scale. When your rebellion is put together by a committee, it doesn’t have much of a bite, and at times Supergirl comes close to that.
But for all its rough edges, the workmanship is there if you look for it. The kind of critics who are on board with the film will tell you about the practical, in-your-face quality of it. In a scuffle, the heroes don’t just blow things up; they make do and take a hit. You can feel the stakes.
Where it soars versus where it stumbles
Here is the short version if you’re in a hurry:
– Alcock is what you come for
– Momoa is reliably good for a show
– Ruthye gives it some ballast
– Krem is more threatening than he is likeable
– The visuals do their job
– The writing won’t leave you in awe
Making sense of the Alcock talk
In the run-up to the film, Alcock was having none of the online dissection of women in big roles. Citing her time on House of the Dragon, she put a stop to what she called a “tsunami” of public opinion and the idea that people can own up to a woman’s body.
Not everyone was on board with that. A few had a go at her for being a victim or for pre-emptively calling out misogyny. Some even read between the lines and thought she was worried about the movie itself.
Then it was the other way around. Fans made a stand for Alcock, with many hailing her as the best part of the picture and evidence that the noise shouldn't matter. Once the movie was in the can, the talk was less about whether she could handle the part and more about what the script allowed her to do.
The rest of the cast and what drives them
Ruthye, as played by Eve Ridley, is the backbone of the thing. She’s a hard line of resolve and anger to offset Kara’s kind of put-upon attitude. If the mission starts to waver, Ruthye clamps down on it.
Matthias Schoenaerts makes for a fine, if grotesque, Krem of the Yellow Hills. With the piercings and the shaved head, he’s a child-trafficking nightmare you believe in, even if some would have liked a little more charm to go with the nastiness.
You get some feeling from Emily Beecham and David Krumholtz as Alura and Zor-El. And when Corenswet’s Superman makes an appearance, he does it with a light touch, a nice nudge of warmth that doesn’t get in the way. It shows you can have a universe that works without being bogged down by it.
Is this a fix for the DCU or a side road?
Gunn’s talk of putting quality first is being put to the test. With the word on the street being mixed, there is some finger-pointing as to whether the writing was up to the task of redefining these characters. It’s something you can’t ignore at the box office.
Still, the film sidesteps some of the usual pitfalls. No info-dumps to slow you down, a leaner cast, and action that says something. There is a certain grime to it that could be a model for what’s to come, provided the next ones put some edge on the story.
As long as they put Alcock’s Kara in the middle of it, the DCU has somewhere to go. You won’t find a poster-ready icon in her. She’s a survivor with a few bruises, and she’d sooner put a fist through the skyline than stand for a photo op with it in the background. And you can tell.
What to have in mind before you part with your hard-earned for a ticket
Here is some straight talk to help you decide:
– You’re in for some character work, not an info-dump on the lore
– The pacing has its hiccups
– Lobo is going to be in your face
– Don’t go in thinking you’ve never seen this kind of movie before
– The fight choreography and world-building are top-notch
At its core, the film has something to say about what a hero is these days. Supergirl makes the case that being strong is less of a neat line and more of a collection of scars. Kara’s missteps, the morning after, the unthinking side of her – they’re all there for a reason. The movie has room for that kind of mess, even if the story doesn’t always.
Then there is the way it handles grief, which is a relief. It won’t put a bow on your pain; it will show you how it sours into anger and the trouble of turning that into something like justice. On its best day, it’s very much of the moment.
But let’s be blunt: some of it is overdone. There are too many times when the film goes for style and doesn’t quite pull it off. Put in a tentacled oddity or a rubbery monster and the whole thing stutters. You see the star power up on screen and a void in the script.
Even so, no one can deny Alcock and Momoa make for a fine pair. One is a muffled tempest, the other a full-blown gale. Put them in the same room and you’ll be watching, even if the terrain is nothing new.
In the scheme of a reboot, Supergirl is a bit of a wild card. It’s not going to upend the formula, but it won’t be tamed by it either. What you get is a movie that feels like it’s in between things, more of a “here we are” than a “we did it.”
For DC, that may be good enough for now. If they take a look at the critics and give us some writing with as much bite as Alcock has, the next one could be a lot better. They have the people for it.
So, is it worth it? That’s up to what you were looking for. A genre-bending space opera? Not really. A lead with some edge and a Lobo to rattle the cage of the DCU? Then you’re set.
Supergirl is in theatres from Friday, June 26, 2026. We don’t know when it will be on a streamer. Only the box office and the chattering of the crowd will tell if this is the start of something or just a flash in the pan.
