The second big test of James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe arrived in theaters today, and it arrived under a cloud. “Supergirl” opened nationwide following its June 22 world premiere, and the reviews landing alongside it tell a mixed-to-worrying story: praise for its lead, skepticism about nearly everything around her, and a box office projection that has DC Studios watching its opening weekend with a knot in its stomach. Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El may be a delight. The film around her is a harder sell.
Let us start with the good, because there is real good, and it has a name. Milly Alcock, who broke out as the young Rhaenyra on “House of the Dragon,” draws consistent praise as Kara Zor-El even from critics who found the film wanting. Empire’s three-star review called her “hungover hero” delightful, and the recurring note across reviews is that Alcock brings a swagger to the character that survives the material around her. When the most common critical refrain is that the lead is great and the movie is not, you have a specific and familiar problem: a well-cast hero stuck in an underwhelming vehicle. Warning beyond this point there are spoilers for the DC Universe and the critical reception and story approach of ‘Supergirl’.
When the most common critical refrain is that the lead is great and the movie is not, you have a specific and familiar problem.”
The criticisms are where it gets uncomfortable for DC Studios. Reviews cite bad writing, gratuitous cameos, and uninspired visuals, with one pointed line accusing the film of taking audiences “back to the bad old days of the DCEU,” the very era this reboot was supposed to leave behind. That comparison is the nightmare scenario for Gunn’s project, because the entire premise of the new DCU was a clean break from the messy, tonally scattered previous regime. A review invoking the “bad old days” is not just a bad notice. It is a strike at the reboot’s core promise. This is only the second theatrical release of the new DCU, following the “Superman” relaunch, and second impressions carry enormous weight. The reboot needed to demonstrate that its opening success was the start of a sustainable universe rather than a one-off, that Gunn’s DC could reliably deliver, and a mixed reception for “Supergirl” complicates that narrative at a delicate moment. A young franchise cannot afford to look shaky this early, and the reviews have handed the skeptics exactly the ammunition they were waiting for. The pressure on what comes next just intensified.
The box office outlook compounds the anxiety, and the BR team is watching the numbers with genuine concern for the project. Early projections point to a soft opening, and in a summer where “Toy Story 5” is devouring family audiences and multiple tentpoles are competing for every ticket, a superhero film that critics are lukewarm on faces a brutal marketplace. Superhero movies live and die on word of mouth and repeat viewings, and mixed reviews tend to suppress both. The film needs audiences to disagree with the critics, and disagree loudly, to find its footing.
There is a real shame in the situation, because Supergirl as a character deserves a great movie, and Alcock clearly has the goods to headline one. The source material the film draws from is some of the more emotionally resonant modern Supergirl storytelling, a take on Kara that leans into her trauma and her rougher edges rather than treating her as a female Superman clone. When a film gets the casting and the source inspiration right but fumbles the execution, it is more frustrating than an outright disaster, because you can see the better version hiding just underneath. The pieces were there.
For James Gunn, whose creative vision anchors the entire DCU, the mixed reception is a moment that demands perspective rather than panic. Building a cinematic universe is a marathon, and no franchise avoids stumbles, but the early chapters set the tone and the audience’s baseline trust, and this is an early chapter landing softer than hoped. The challenge now is ensuring “Supergirl” reads as a bump rather than a pattern, and that job falls to the DCU projects still to come, which suddenly carry more weight than they did a week ago. One shaky release is survivable. Two would start to look like a trend.
The craft criticisms sting in a particular way given the reboot’s ambitions. The DCU launched promising a distinct, confident visual identity, a clean aesthetic break from what came before, and reviews calling the visuals uninspired cut against that promise directly. Superhero filmmaking lives on spectacle and a sense of the iconic, and a film that fails to deliver visually struggles to justify the theatrical premium in an era when audiences increasingly default to waiting for streaming. The look of these films is not a secondary concern. For a young universe, it is part of the entire pitch.
“Supergirl” is a worrying but not fatal stumble for a universe that is still finding its feet. Alcock is a genuine asset the DCU can build around for years, and a great lead is harder to find than a good script, so the reboot has its foundation piece even if this particular film disappoints. But the reviews confirm that goodwill and casting alone cannot carry a franchise, and the execution has to catch up to the ambition fast. The next few releases will determine whether this is a hiccup or the start of a familiar, dispiriting story.
So the woman of tomorrow arrives with trouble today, a beloved lead trapped in a film that critics say does not deserve her, opening into a merciless marketplace with a nervous studio watching the receipts. The DCU needed “Supergirl” to be a confident second step. Instead it got a wobble, redeemed partly by a star who looks ready for much bigger things. Whether Kara Zor-El gets the movie she deserves may have to wait for another day, but on the evidence of her debut, Milly Alcock is not the problem. She might be the solution the DCU builds its future around.
What Do You Think? Is a mixed reception for only the second DCU film a survivable stumble or an early warning sign for James Gunn’s whole project? Does Milly Alcock’s praised performance give the DCU a foundational star worth building around despite the film’s flaws? And with “Toy Story 5” dominating and a crowded marketplace ahead, how much does a soft opening weekend really threaten the reboot’s momentum?
See you on the next binge!
