There were a few times in television and
movies where something seemed inexplicable.
It wasn’t until years later that something came along that put things in
perspective. It always seemed odd to me
that in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Best of Both Worlds, only Captain
Picard was assimilated. Then, it came
out that Patrick Stewart had thrown out the idea of not coming back for the
fourth season. Picard’s assimilation
offered a way out, if necessary. I’m not
sure how true it is, but it made sense.
Supergirl was an interesting movie, but
it provided me with a lot of similar questions.
It starts in Argo City. Argo City
survived the destruction of Krypton by hiding in some sort of fold in
space. It’s powered by a small orb
called the Omegahedron. It’s not a toy,
but Kara Zor-El is allowed to play with it.
After a few minutes, it gets blown out into space and lands on Earth.
The man who lent it to her is sent to
the Phantom Zone for all of eternity.
Kara chases after it, hoping to get it back. If she doesn’t, the entire population of Argo
City will die. You’d think with
something so important, it would be better protected. For that matter, you’d think the city walls would
be made of something stronger. Then
again, we wouldn’t have a movie.
When Kara lands on Earth, she happens to
land near where the Omegahedron is, but not close enough to actually get
it. Instead, Selena finds it. She’s a witch that’s looking for an easy way
to take over the world. She dumps the
warlock Nigel and goes about plotting world domination.
Again, this Omegahedron thingy is really
important. Kara is trying to find this
to save her city. To her advantage,
she’s instantly given the same powers as her cousin, Superman. In fact, she miraculously has a Supergirl outfit
on once she’s on Earth. Rather than set
out to look for the orb, she flies around and takes a look at the planet. It’s not clear where Argo City is in
relationship to Earth. She could have
been travelling for five minutes or two months.
Either way, she has no time to lose.
Once she’s done flying, she sets herself
up at an all-girls boarding school. She
calls herself Linda Lee, saying she’s Clark Kent’s cousin, and is roomed with
Lois Lane’s sister, Lucy. This baffles
me. She can forge a document in
seconds. Why not set herself up with a
house? Why bother with classes and
whatnot? I get that she’s young, but
there has to be another option here.
Given a choice, I’d pick the one that doesn’t involve doing homework or
taking tests.
A whole bunch of stuff happens, giving
Selena the chance to figure out how the orb works. Kara makes exactly zero effort to find it
until it’s too late and Selena has already taken over a small town. Kara is banished to the Phantom Zone,
herself, but escapes. The final battle
ensues and everything is put right again.
The entire movie stinks of a project
that someone had to make. It’s like an
executive wanted a superhero movie with a female hero and passed it off to a
team of people that didn’t think it was a good idea. In fact, the movie looks like it may have
been written more as a comedy, but was played more as a drama.
Even the writing has bare-minimum effort
all over it. Why does a city have only
one power source? You’d think they’d
have a second one as a backup. This
wouldn’t even be a plot killer. Kara
could still have to retrieve it. Do you
really want it falling into the hands of someone like Selena?
Then, there’s the whole issue of witches
and warlocks. Really? That’s the best you could come up with? I don’t know if this idea ever showed up in
the comics, but I think I would have come up with a better adversary. You’re already doing a gender-swapped story. Why not just have a female evil genius, much
like Lex Luthor.
There’s a lot about the movie that
doesn’t look right. For a movie where a
city’s population is on the line, there’s no sense of urgency. The flying sequences are way too long. Superman gets a cameo by way of a
poster. The only crossover is Jimmy
Olsen. I suspect that having one
character cross over was a way of not sinking the Superman franchise if this
movie tanked, which may have been a good idea.
If you can’t find a copy of this movie to watch, don’t worry about it.
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