It’s a new DC Universe, but the results with critics look pretty much the same.
The current regime at DC Studios released their second film this week: Supergirl directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Milly Alcock as the Woman of Tomorrow. It may still be a box-office hit, but it has not fared all that well with critics. As of this writing, it currently sits at a rotten rating of 57 on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. That’s based on reviews from over 230 critics listed on the site.
That’s a stark comedown from the first new DC Universe movie, last summer’s Superman written and directed by James Gunn. It got an 83 on Rotten Tomatoes, 26 point higher than Supergirl. Gunn is also the co-CEO of DC Studios, and as such he oversees all of the company’s movies, including Supergirl. But whatever input he had on the final product, it wasn’t enough to turn it into a critical hit.
READ MORE: 25 Classic Movies That Got Bad Reviews From Critics
That score, which is still in flux to some degree, puts Supergirl more in line with the much-maligned DC Extended Universe launched back in 2013 by director Zack Snyder. While some DCEU titles got strong reviews from critics, including Wonder Woman (93 rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and Shazam! (90), eight different DCEU movies currently hold rotten scores on the site, including Black Adam (39), Snyder’s Man of Steel (56) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (28), and Suicide Squad (26).
Despite the fact that I really enjoyed Gunn’s Superman and I loved the comic series that this new Supergirl was based on, I’m among the 43 percent of critics who did not enjoy the film. As I put it in my review, the movie’s creative issues are…
…particularly disappointing because the new DC Universe got off to such a promising start with last year’s Superman. Milly Alcock’s Supergirl cameoed in that film, and was so instantly likable in her brief screen time that it set high expectations that her spinoff doesn’t come close to matching. That’s despite the presence of Superman’s biggest scene-stealer — the rambunctious super-dog Krypto — and even the Man of Steel himself, played by David Corenswet in a small but important supporting role.
Following The Flash (which actually has a slightly fresh score of 63 if you can believe that) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in 2023, Warner Bros reset their DC team, bringing Gunn in from Marvel to oversee the creative side of the company. He relaunched DC’s film universe starting with his new interpretation of Superman. That movie performed well, but Supergirl is at the very least, not nearly as well-reviewed by critics.
There are still reasons to be optimistic about DC’s future. This fall’s Clayface looks like a real departure for the company, and potentially a very interesting one. And they’ve already got a new Superman sequel coming next year from Gunn and Corenswet, and another Batman film from director Matt Reeves down the line. But if nothing else Supergirl does show: These comic book movies ain’t easy to make.
