Supergirl: The Best Movie Of The Year?

Warning: This review contains major spoilers for Supergirl (2026)

Look out! Here comes DC Studios’ Supergirl, flying onto screens starring Milly Alcock as the titular Woman of Tomorrow, and it might just be the best movie of the year. From the wonderful writing, amazing plot, quick pacing, and at many times, heart-breaking acting, Supergirl is perfect. For the second movie in the brand new DC Universe, it’s honestly better than Superman. 

The film comes from writer Ana Nogueira and director Craig Gillespie (known for his work on I, Tonya and Cruella), in an adaptation of one of the greatest comic books of all time, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King, with art by Bilquis Evely and Matheus Lopes serving as the direct inspiration for the film. Woman of Tomorrow focuses on the young Ruthye Marye Knoll, as she enlists Kara in her quest to avenge her father’s death at the hands of the criminal Krem of the Yellow Hills, and the two spend months traversing the universe in search of him. In the end, Kara tells Ruthye to not kill Krem, and imprisons him in the Phantom Zone (a dimensional prison used by Kryptonians), where he is released decades later.

However, the film takes a bit of a different turn, and it’s all the better for it. Instead of being an average criminal, Krem is a human trafficker, and the comic’s months-long adventure is instead constrained to Kara’s three day journey to save her dog, Krypto, who is the final remnant of her home. The movie has Kara telling Ruthye not to kill Krem because of what it would do to her as a person, but in the end, Kara is the one to kill Krem. Having read Woman of Tomorrow before seeing the film, all the changes made sense, and Supergirl managed to keep the spirit of the comic at heart while also standing on its own distinct from the comic. And since they turned the main villain into a human trafficker, they could not justify keeping him alive, and his death was cathartic to watch. 

If there’s one thing that everyone can agree on, it’s that Alcock’s portrayal of the last Daughter of Krypton is the best part of the movie. The latest in a long line of live action Supergirls dating back to 1984, this version of Kara Zor-El is among the best. Only time will tell if Alcock could be the best Supergirl actor, but she’s certainly in the running. Confirmed to return in the James Gunn’s Superman follow-up Man of Tomorrow, Supergirl will soar on the big screen again sooner rather than later. The children growing up on this version of the Girl of Steel are pretty lucky.

Now, if you know anything about Supergirl from the 2015 Arrowverse show Supergirl, you probably don’t recognise anything about this Kara. In the show, and other contemporary adaptations, Kara Zor-El (a.k.a Kara Danvers) was a relatively normal person, a symbol of hope for those real and fictional. That version of Supergirl we all know and love basically stood for the same things as Superman: Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow. (and the female Clark Kent allegations are wrong if you spend more than five seconds thinking about it.)

But that’s not the case in this year’s Supergirl. As the tagline states, the DCU Kara stands for “Truth, Justice, Whatever”. All in all, this Kara doesn’t really care. At least, that’s what it’s initially presented as. This is a Supergirl who spends her days in bars on planets with Red Suns, using alcohol as a coping mechanism to grieve her family and planet instead of being a hero like her cousin. But she’s not her cousin. Supergirl isn’t a symbol of hope in the same way that Superman is. A major theme in the film is that Kara, while not being perfect nor kind, is still good. She does the right thing. The distinction between this Kara and the previous iterations isn’t that she’s the only one who is good, but that she’s the only who is good despite it all. Other adaptations never really focused on the trauma, but Supergirl shows a deeply broken person, who, despite everything, still strives to be good. 

However, one thing that the DCU Kara Zor-El shares with the Arrowverse’s Kara Danvers is the heavy bisexual coding. Although Supergirl doesn’t have a love interest in the film (and it's because the DCU doesn’t have a Lena Luthor yet), Alcock said that Kara probably swings both ways, and while that may just be well-timed queerbaiting, it is still notable considering the legacy of the previous live action Supergirl. The 2015 Supergirl featured quite a number of queer characters, and is especially known for introducing the first live-action transgender superhero, Nia Nal/Dreamer, in its fourth season. The DCU Kara (probably) being bisexual works not only as great potential for representation, but also some meta connective tissue between different iterations of the character. Since the CW Supergirl writers might as well have invented queerbaiting, the DCU version being more open with the character’s sexuality is a step in the right direction, and Alcock’s comment hopefully holds some promise for a bisexual Kara in the future.

The only bad thing about Supergirl was the unfortunately noticeable lack of Blondie’s Call Me, which was the song plastered all over the movie’s marketing. But that’s not to say that the soundtrack was bad by any means. That and considering the meaning of the lyrics, that might be a good thing. Every song featured (needledrop, if you will) fits both the overall tone of the film and the mood of the specific scene, including that cover of The Middle featured in the final fight between Kara and Krem. 

Now, is Supergirl the best movie of the year? While it may be too early to tell, 2026 hasn’t offered too much, nor does it have too much left to offer. While old white men running around in spandex may be more appealing to some, and that certainly seems to be what Marvel Studios is offering this year, with Spider-Man: How many characters can we stuff in this before it gets ridiculous? (oh wait, it already is) and Avengers: Cash Grab on the horizon, seeing a badass woman murder a bunch of human traffickers probably takes the cake.

Overall, Supergirl was amazing, and I believe that everything was done spectacularly. It wasn’t a perfect 1:1 adaptation of Woman of Tomorrow, but between condensing the story and raising the stakes, all while convincingly building Kara and Ruthye’s relationship over the film, being a completely accurate adaptation doesn’t matter. Plus, the original isn’t going anywhere. We also had the fabulous flashbacks to Argo City done in Suh Ankripton (the Kryptonian language), the acting was great, and David Corenswet’s Superman appeared too. If you haven’t already seen it, what are you waiting for? Personally, Supergirl is the best movie of the year.