User Reviews

Title: SUPERGIRL Rating (Theatrical Version): *1/2 (out of 5) Rating (International Version): ***1/2 (out of 5) Rating (Extended Director's Cut): **** (out of 5)

There have been many films that, when originally released, have been spit on and throughly trashed by the critics and audience; some of these films have developed into cult classics. However, I have never seen a film that has had the first characteristic and then eventually go beyond all expectations, raising a few eyebrows and almost completely overcome all the negativity that had been thrown at it in the past. SUPERGIRL is the first film that I have given ever that respect to and it's a real shame that it wasn't released the way it should have been. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the first two SUPERMAN films, and yet I really don't like comics in general. However, the original SUPERMAN film released in 1978, was respected by those who don't even care for superhero and comic book movies and it, to an extent, had started a phenomenon in terms of bringing more superheroes and comic book characters to the screen. When SUPERMAN III was released in 1983, however, it had practically ruined the concept and the audience had retreated back into their normal lives when Christopher Reeve, wisely, retired from the role. One year later, SUPERGIRL was released by the same producers (Alexander and Ilya Salkind) and trashed almost twice as much as SUPERMAN III was. Needless to say, when I saw it on television in the early 90's, I trashed it to and thought it was worse than SUPERMAN III, as well as PART IV, and looked at it nothing more than ridiculous and amateurish. In 2000, however, my opinion of SUPERGIRL was completely changed. Being an avid DVD collector (and a particular fan of audio commentaries), I decided to give SUPERGIRL a second chance for curiosity's sake and, as a result, this movie actually made me realize not to never judge a film again for just for what it shows and presents. The DVD version (by Anchor Bay) has two versions of the film...and neither one is the original 105 min. version! They contain the international version (which runs 124 min.) and a never-before-seen Director's Cut that ran a whopping 138 min! The latter version contained scenes that have not only never been released before, but have only recently surfaced in a London vault with the warning "Do Not Use." For the very first time, director Jeannot Szwarc has released his complete vision of the film, complete with a genuinely surprising audio commentary which touches base on his intentions before and during the making of the film from the very beginning. The facts (you can call them SPOILERS if you want) are simply these:

1. Christopher Reeve was going to be in it and be a mentor of sorts to Supergirl in one scene where she arrives on Earth, as well as be in another scene when Supergirl eventually saves him upon losing all his powers. Due to the failure of the third SUPERMAN movie, however, Reeve completely bowed out of the role due to his blaming of the Salkinds' for how they screwed up the entire franchise by making the third film campy and put more empahsis on comedy, which simply didn't work. Ironically, that's exactly how many critics and audiences in 1984 thought that SUPERGIRL was awful.

2. Director Jeannot Szwarc reveals that, from the beginning, that he wanted SUPERGIRL to stand on its own and be nothing more (or less) that what it was; in other words, he made it so it would pretend to be nothing else than itself. He had to contend with many revisions of the script by David Odell, for not only production reasons, but for studio reasons: Warner Bros declined to release it (again due to the failure of S. III) and it was then picked up by then-unknown Tri-Star pictures, who had chopped up the film to where, when it was released in the U.S., had a lot of incoherency and confusing development (in both plot and characters), and thus all but completely trashed Szwarc's vision and intentions.

3. The result made SUPERGIRL virtually ignored by the U.S. audience, failing miserably at the box office and with every major critic promoting it as garbage; my favorite critic, Leonard Maltin called it "a superdrag: dull, long, and heavy-handed." All the well-repected actors in it were condemned as being "wasted" and "laughable"; this is especially true of Faye Dunaway, as the villianess bent on obtaining world dominition. As for its status today, hardly anyone remembers it, and a few people I've talked to maintain it doesn't even exist! That all changed with the 2000 DVD release by Anchor Bay, which I had viewed only recently.

I truly believe that when people watch either the International or Director's Cut, that they will agree with me that it would have been much better---and maybe even a success---if released that way in 1984. Presented in a digitally mastered version by THX, the film matures on almost every level, beginning with Jerry Goldsmith's score being nothing short of sensationsal, giving the film what John Williams gave to the original SUPERMAN, but what's different is that Goldsmith's actually complements the heroine's qualities by being lyrical and high-spirited. Then there is Alan Hume's gorgeous cinematography, which reaches its zenith in a wonderful sequence where Supergirl does an "aerial ballet" when she discovers her powers; it supports the idea that her character is innocent and in utter awe with her discovery (may I also state that this sequence was cut entirely when first released). Finally, because of the director's commentary, my original opinions of the performances have been erased; he states that his cast chose to be in the film primarily because it was a change-of-pace for them and all they wanted was, as the director wanted as well, just to "have fun." That, combined with the additional footage bringing the full character development back into focus, the film goes beyond all expectations. The key to enjoying this film, bear in mind, is to not take it too seriously (which many critics tend to do when reviewing a movie). Despite all the praise I've given to this new version, the film still does have flaws, particularly in the writing department, though you do come to realize that is not necessarily the fault of the screenwriter when considering the sequence of events that lead to the film being made. I encourage anyone to take a chance to check this film out because it really is very enjoyable and a lot of fun; beware of the old video release and TV versions, however! E-mail me if you want to express your agreements (or disagreements) with me.

The way some people see Supergirl is the perfect demonstration that feminists have been right all along: a woman does have to work twice as hard just to earn half the pay and a tenth the respect of a man.

The double standard is astounding; the same people who can watch Superman reverse time by reversing Earth's rotation without so much as blinking, are the same ones who complain that they never explained where Supergirl got her outfit. They see nothing wrong with a depowered Superman who walks all the way to the North Pole without food, water or so much as a scarf, where he recovers his powers without explanation. Then they turn around and complain that Supergirl wasn't wet when she came out of the lake. When the depowered Superman discovers the world has been taken over by a superpowered madman, he walks to the North Pole. He doesn't run, or jog, or ride a dogsled or anything; he walks there. When Supergirl arrives to Earth, she decides that having a base of operations, sleeping on a comfortable bed, and eating real food are better than sleeping in the woods eating crickets. Guess who is accused of not showing enough desperation in the face of adversity and who isn't.

Most of the flaws that people see in Supergirl exist only in their imagination. For instance, Supergirl's costume. The movie clearly shows that Supergirl can change the shape of her outfit at will. She does it when you first see her in her Supergirl outfit, then when she changes to Linda, then when she flies out the window to confront the invisible monster, etc., etc. So why is it that people complain about the wrong thing (the first appearance of her Supergirl outfit) rather than the right one (her unexplained ability to change her clothes)? Because they were not interested in watching the movie, they were only interested in finding flaws in it. But how can she change her clothes anyway? Let's see, she's a superpowered being who can move at nearly the speed of light, who comes from a civilization several hundred years ahead of ours and who wasn't exactly wearing clothes bought at Kmart to begin with. Maybe she uses her speed. Maybe her clothes can chance their shape. Who knows? By the way, is there anyone over six years old who believes that Peter Parker could've made such a stunning costume by himself when it took a small army of designers and seamstresses to make the ones used in the movie? Of course not. Is there anyone who cares? Of course not, it's just a freaking costume. Oddly enough, this reasoning, though perfectly valid when applied to Spidey, is never used with Supergirl.

Another complaint is that the movie never explains how Supergirl knows so much about Superman. Er, did anyone miss the fact that half the movie is spent with Selena chasing Supergirl all over the universe using a device from Argo City? Do I need to remind anyone that Kryptonians aren't exactly Amish?

Some people claim the movie has bad dialogues. Like when Supergirl asks a thug "why are you doing this?" and he responds "that's just the way we are." Let's assume for a moment the apparently preposterous notion that what characters say should be the result of their intelligence, knowledge, independent thought process, plus the context of the dialogue. So here's the scene: two thugs confront Supergirl with the intention of "having fun" with her. She easily throws one of them away and asks him why he is doing this (this is the first time she's ever met a "bad guy"). And what exactly do people expect his response to be? Shakespeare? A 2-hour dissertation on the psychological origins of his motivations? A one-liner so full of charm and wit that would make Jon Stewart insane with envy? This guy is neither an English professor nor a rocket scientist and the only things in his mind were the curvier parts of Supergirl's anatomy. He's not interested in impressing anyone or sounding witty. He simply says the first thing that comes to his mind, and what he says is pretty much within the ballpark of what you'd expect from him given the circumstances. The problem is that people are too used to characters in other superhero movies who are nothing more than a mouth and an attitude, plus a collection of puns and one-liners waiting to happen, where the idea of characterization is to have a guy yell "kneel before Zod!" every ten minutes.

But the silliest complaint is that she joins a school instead of going bananas trying to find the Omegahedron. Let's see, when you're looking for a needle in a haystack, what would be more productive: to be smart and methodical or to run around like a headless chicken? Supergirl chooses the first option. She finds herself a comfortable base of operations (where she can easily find all the information she needs about Earth), where she hides during the day, using the night as a cover while she searches. But why would she hide? Because when you're searching for a dangerous weapon, the last thing you'd want to do is let its current owners know you're looking for them. They'll either hide or sneak up on you. Once again, people are so used to stupid superhero behavior (e.g., Superman struggling to pull the Kryptonite necklace over his head instead of just bending over) that they're unable to recognize the one time when someone uses her brain.

In the end, there's nothing that Supergirl does wrong that Superman doesn't do ten times worse, yet all the disastrous flaws in Superman are either ignored or dismissed as nice little quirks that give the movie a lovely homemade feeling while every tiny detail in Supergirl is regarded as a crime against humanity. Is that sexism? You bet.

I had known about this movie for years, including the name of its leading star, I knew it was meant to be terrible, but it was after the star's CGI cameo appearance in DC movie The Flash that inspired me to finally watch it, directed by Jeannot Szwarc (Jaws 2, Santa Claus: The Movie, Smallville, Heroes). Basically, Kara Zor-El (Helen Slater), cousin of Kal-El and Jor-El's niece, lives in an isolated Kryptonian community in Argo City; they survived the destruction of the planet Krypton after being transported into a pocket of trans-dimensional space, the Survival Zone. A unique and immensely powerful item known as the "Omegahedron", which powers Argo, has been borrowed by the wizard Zaltar (Razzie nominated Peter O'Toole), without the knowledge of the city's government. Zaltar allows Kara to use it; she creates a large flying insect which crashes through the window, causing a vacuum into space, and the Omegahedron is rocketed into space. Taking a pod ship, Kara follows the Omegahedron to Earth, where Superman ended up. She transforms into Supergirl and lands on the planet to find and recover the Omegahedron and save Argo City. When Supergirl arrives, she discovers her new powers greanted by the environment and the radiation of the sun. She has her first experiences of flying and explores the planet. Meanwhile, Selena (Razzie nominated Faye Dunaway) is a power-hungry would-be witch, assisted by the useless Bianca (Brenda Vaccaro), and in a terrible relationship with warlock Nigel (Peter Cook). Selena discovers the Omegahedron and its power and learns to master her true magic. Whilst looking for the Omegahedron, Kara creates the cover identity "Linda Lee", cousin of Clark Kent, and enrols at an all-girls school. There, she befriends Lucy Lane (Maureen Teefy), the younger sister of Lois Lane who happens to be studying there. Selena uses her magic to drug school groundskeeper Ethan (Hart Bochner) with a a love potion which will make him fall in love with the first person he sees for a day. Ethan regains consciousness in Selena's absence and wanders out into the streets. Angry by his disappearance, Selena uses her powers to animate a construction vehicle to retrieve Ethan, causing chaos as it drives down the street. Supergirl, in the guise of Linda, rescues Ethan, and he falls in love with her instead. Tracking the energy from the magic of the Omegahedron, Supergirl finds and confronts Selena. Ethan is captured by Selena and brought to her lair, while she traps Supergirl and sends her to the Phantom Zone, a prison dimension. Now powerless, Supergirl wanders the bleak landscape and nearly drowns in an oily bog. Eventually, she encounters Zaltar, who has exiled himself to the Phantom Zone as a punishment for losing the Omegahedron. Zaltar sacrifices himself to help Kara to escape through a vortex atop a steep cliff. Back on Earth, Selena uses the Omegahedron to make herself a "princess of Earth" with Ethan as her lover and consort. Emerging from the Phantom Zone through a mirror, Supergirl regains her powers and confronts Selena. She uses the Omegahedron to summon a gigantic shadow demon. The demon is close to defeating Supergirl when she hears Zaltar's voice urging her to fight on. Supergirl breaks free, Nigel has a change of heart, and tells her the only way to defeat Selena is to turn the demon against her. Supergirl creates a focused whirlwind to trap Selena, she is attacked and incapacitated by the demon, and Bianca is pulled into the whirlwind as well. Selena, Bianca, and the demon are sucked through the mirror portal, which promptly reforms, trapping them all forever. Ethan is freed from Selena's spell; he expresses his feeling for Linda as Supergirl, knowing they are the same person. She tells him she must return to save Argo City and that he may not see her again. Kara returns the Omegahedron to a darkened Argo City, which then lights up again. Also starring Mia Farrow as Alura, Supergirl's mother, Simon Ward as Zor-El, Supergirl's mother, Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' David Healy as Mr. Danvers, Sandra Dickinson as Pretty Young Lady, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' Matt Frewer as Eddie the Truck Driver. Slater is pretty and looks good in the outfit, but she is weak as a convincing heroine, Dunaway is spirited but irritating as the over-the-top villainess, talented O'Toole adds little to the party, neither does Cook as the villain's on-off boyfriend, and Bochner is dull as dishwater as the man who fancies Supergirl. The only positive I can find is that the score by Jerry Goldsmith is sweeping in the opening credits and the flying sequences, and maybe one or two of the rescue scenes. Unfortunately, it is let down by a silly script, daft performances, naff dialogue, a cheesy atmosphere, average special effects, and it is too long, no wonder it was a critical failure and a box office bomb, a disappointing and near pointless superhero fantasy. Adequate!

Supergirl is basically a poor movie. It does however have a shinning star in Helen Slater as Supergirl who even though overtly green at times manages to give the character not only an appealing presence, but a natural innocence. She overcomes the clumsy script and amplifies her alien persona. If your a comic book buff (especially of DC comics) you may have a natural inclination to want to like the film, but feelings can't save the awful reality of the movie. The shame is that they had a real Supergirl surrounded by a big mess. Childish antics which make you cringe even more than Superman's "Otis" abound. With a premise that has Supergirl traveling to Earth to re-obtain the Omegahedron that will save her city, can all be lost? Coming off the ridiculousness of Superman III, I can only figure that the filmmakers thought audiences wanted more buffoonery. Or, they just sank into their own selfish indulgences which were not all bad. The gaudiness remains pervasive throughout though. Hart Bochner's contrived "romance" is embarrassing, especially the poetry scenes. The villains to me are all clownish to the point of distraction. Had Faye Dunaway played her evil witch straight, we may have had something. Mia Farrow is bland and Peter O'Tool turns in an "oh well the planet will blow up" delivery. We also never got any bullets bouncing off Supergirl which made me, well, mad. On the plus side the Phantom Zone is well done and Supergirls perils within it bring a needed darkness that plays nicely. The flying scenes are quite good for the era, and playing the THX remastered DVD in a blu ray player adds beauty. The only way to watch this film IS the THX version as the print is surprisingly good compared to the grainy "directors cut".

The "limited edition" DVD which contains the THX version (and directors cut)is pricey now being that "only' 50,000 were made. You may get lucky on ebay as I did. The extras are well worth it for "Superman family" DC fans. The lengthy "making of the film" featurette is a great watch as Slaters evolution is discussed. Multiple trailers, storyboards, and a cautious directors commentary fill out the disc. Supergirl fails in most ways, but strangely triumphs in giving us a memorable film heroine embodied by Slater that succeeds in it's own right.