how the supergirl movie failed its main character
interviews and reviews alike keep boldly claiming, "if you're expecting a female superman*, you'll leave the theater disappointed." but i'm here to tell you that if you're expecting supergirl, you'll also leave disappointed.
* - was anyone expecting such thing?
despite milly alcock's brilliant portrayal, a weak script is still a weak script. i found kara to be very charming (all credit to milly) but very flat as a character in the way her arc (or lack thereof) was presented in the movie.
the problem with kara's lack of compassion
the movie missed the most crucial part of kara's character throughout her history: her deeply rooted, almost self-destructive compassion for others.
after losing her planet, she genuinely tries to spare everyone else from that same pain. that response to krypton's destruction is just as important as the destruction itself. losing her home is essential to her backstory, but the compassion it shapes in her is the core of who she is.
you can make her sweet, gentle, snarky, moody, broody, or angry. you can reinterpret her personality in countless ways. but once you remove that compassion — that instinct to put others before herself despite everything she's been through — you've removed the heart of her character. and that's exactly what the movie did.
kara was charming. she was. very funny. but her lack of compassion truly is a letdown, and an insult to the character of kara zor-el.
upon finding out krem and his minions are kidnapping kids to be trafficked and sold as child brides, she responds with... not really any reaction. she doesn't seem to really care. sure, she helps, but they're not her main priority, or really a priority at all. it's all about her dog.
there's a scene where krem kills a family, including their child, and, well, she doesn't seem to care too much. surely a small moment acknowledging any sorrow on kara's part would've gone a long way? but no, she flies into space to scream about her dog once again instead.
one can make the argument that kara is not supergirl yet, but she doesn't even have to care as a superhero if she's not ready to be one. she just has to care as a fellow woman. she saves the girls, but more with a "might as well while i'm here" attitude than an "i really want to help those girls."
the movie makes kara very one-dimensional. it believes that adding trauma to a character is enough to make them deep. removing kara's compassion is truly detrimental to the whole story, because her reaction to her home's destruction is what makes her deep and complex, not the destruction itself. alura and zor-el's words about kara being good are emotional in the moment, but narratively empty when kara's whole motivation is krypto, and not helping others.
argo as her source of grief
speaking of her home... she barely spoke of it. besides telling ruthye her story because they had time to kill, she never really reminisces about argo.
it's odd. kara is filled with grief, and we know why she is, but she's never really allowed to mention the source of it. not in the small ways a homesick person normally would. argo is the place all of her sorrow comes from, yet she never really expresses that she misses it. its destruction is simply there to make her sad. the grief is central to her identity, but argo itself isn't.
the movie relies on flashbacks to communicate argo as a tragedy, but it never integrates it into kara's present emotional logic. she never mentions missing her mom, her dad, her friends, or even everyday things about her home. argo exists as backstory, not as something she actively longs for.
instead, the emotional gravity shifts away from her original trauma and toward an external anchor. her emotional attachment is krypto through and through. if she cares about argo in any meaningful way, it isn't reflected in her present behavior.
when kara is slowly dying of kryptonite poisoning, it should feel tragically poetic. she's dying the same death her people, her mother, died. but there's never even an indication that she's thinking of them. by that point, even mentioning her mother would've felt out of nowhere because the movie never establishes that kara carries her with her throughout the story.
and because the movie fails to communicate how deeply kara misses her home, her decision to call earth home at the end feels cheap. emotional acceptance only works if we've actually seen what she's struggling to let go of.
and now, on killing krem. again, very one-dimensional.
across different interpretations, kara doesn't have a strict no-kill rule because that would go against her sense of justice. she'd never let someone like krem walk free. but how she applies that justice is nuanced. killing is always her last resort, and when she does it, it's in the name of justice, not revenge. that's not how the movie handles it.
and i mean, come on. just have her say, "i'd never let you hurt another woman again," and you'd be fine. but, once again, it isn't really about the victims. it isn't about getting them justice. it's about revenge. and a revenge kill goes against who kara is as a character.
if the movie had kara send ruthye away because she didn't want her to kill krem out of revenge, and then kill him herself because justice demanded it, that would've been nuanced. alas, it wasn't.
the way ruthye killing krem is treated also lacks the nuance it should have. yes, killing him would probably make her feel better. and yes, it would also be something she'd carry with her for the rest of her life. those two things can both be true. one doesn't cancel out the other.
was there any character development?
kara is the same at the end as she is at the beginning. she doesn't actually go through meaningful character development. she doesn't learn anything substantial. putting on the suit doesn't mark any real transformation because she was already saving people and fighting the same way with the same motivations before she ever wore it.
throughout the movie, kara keeps telling ruthye that killing krem will stay with her forever and that she deserves better than that. yet, by the end, kara decides to kill him because... she's already too far gone? because she's already rotten? that directly contradicts the final scene, where she chooses earth because she believes there's still a life waiting for her.
if the killing had been presented as kara acting out of justice rather than revenge, it would've fit naturally into her arc of becoming a hero. she chooses to kill him because, first, she won't allow him to hurt another woman, and second, because she refuses to let ruthye carry that burden for the rest of her life. kara recognizing that she has to be the one to make that choice, and live with it, to protect others would've been a compelling direction.
but that's not the motivation the movie gives her. at the end, it's still revenge. yes, she's also acting out of compassion for ruthye, but because the movie frames the act through revenge rather than justice, it strips away most of the nuance. it isn't purely a selfless, heroic decision. kara is still doing it for herself.
kara calls earth her home at the end, mostly because they need her there for the superman sequel, but it feels completely unearned. i barely felt that she missed argo in a meaningful way (outside of being sad for sadness' sake) yet somehow she's processed enough of that grief to embrace another planet as home? when did that happen?
bottom line, maybe i would've enjoyed the main character more if she hadn't been kara, but an original character instead. but alas, she is kara.
