Review of Supergirl (1984) by Henry P — 06 Dec 2009

The story is terribly constructed, making many forced shortcuts to get it to where it wants to be which are narratively lazy and lack sense or subtlety, leaving you scratching your head. Whilst the first Superman movie managed to introduce Krypton, Smallville, the Daily Planet and the villains without feeling overstuffed, Supergirl uses fewer locations yet feels like it's trying to bite off more than it can chew.

The school scenes aren't bad with a likeable supporting cast and some funny dialogue, but they also throw into sharp relief the blandness of the hero and how uninvolving her story is. The villains are sometimes fun in a campy way, but they quickly become irritating and although the decision for them to use magic is a good one to challenge an indestructible protagonist, but her powers are ill-defined and since she seems to be imbued with extra ones for the sake of the aforementioned shortcuts, the magic doesn't offer a contrast and simply adds to the confusion of events.

There is a smattering of decent set pieces, but for the majority of its runtime it's still deficient in anything to interest or entertain viewers.