Review of Supergirl (1984) by Rod G — 30 Nov 2013

It's time to review one of my favorite Guilty Pleasures, Supergirl. Yes, this film is stupid but enjoyably stupid. Despite the bad acting, sloppy direction, awkward writing and one dimensional characters this film has a certain "charm" to it. Why is this movie so bad but so good? Let's find out.

Kara is Superman's young cousin living in a planet of Krypton survivors. A power source (I'll just call it the ball of power) has been lost and without it the survivors will die. So, Supergirl goes to Earth to retrieve the ball of power. Okay, here's where it gets weird. In the movie, the story is set up like a rescue mission that has a time limit. But then out of nowhere Kara ends up enrolling herself at a Private all girl school. Excuse me, but you do know your planet needs that ball of power like right now? This is no time to find yourself and make friends with Lois Lane's sister. Not even halfway through, we the audience are dragged into a totally different movie. "Supergirl" is now a coming of age story about a girl who has great but inconsistent powers. Now I've heard there was some drama behind the scenes of this movie involving issues with the script. So maybe that's why there are so many plot holes in this film and the script seems to have two plot threads instead of one.

The "best part about this movie is the acting. Wow I've never seen so many hammy performances in one movie in my time as a movie goer. The best ham acting of all is Faye Dunaway as the evil witch Selena. Anytime she says anything, I will laugh like a maniac. Even though Selena is the lamest witch I ever seen on screen, it's still fun to watch her try to be evil. Maybe taking over the world isn't her calling. However, the worst acting in this film is done by Helen Slater as Supergirl. On one hand, I understand she has no real good material to work with in the movie. However, she could have at least done what everybody else was doing: don't take this movie seriously. Have as much fun as Faye and even Peter O Toole as Zaltar got a laugh or two.

I won't deny that Supergirl is a bad movie. The Effects are laughable, the acting is hammy, the writing is a mess and all the characters in this movie are either tools or blank slates. Still, I had so much fun watching this movie because how bad it is. This is coming from someone that never really got the appeal of the Christopher Reeve Superman films or Superman in general. If you can have a sense of humor about this film and not take it so seriously, then you'll be laughing just as much as I was.