Where Is All This Supergirl Hate Coming From? Seriously, What Is Going On?

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Credit: Warner Bros.

What is going on right now? Seriously, what is going on? I can’t navigate my browser anywhere on the Internet without stumbling into five takes about how Supergirl is hot trash in a cape. The weird thing, though, is that I’ve seen Supergirl, and it’s not hot trash in a cape. It’s just the latest mediocre superhero movie in a long line of mostly mediocre superhero movies that we’ve gotten in the last five years. So, why are we all acting like this one is uniquely problematic and offensive?

I saw Supergirl like two weeks ago at a screening in St Louis that was filled with like ninety percent randoms and ten percent press. I had a pretty good time. My wife had a pretty good time. A co-worker I went with and his buddy both had pretty good times. All of us thought it was a nice enough way to spend (less than) a couple hours.

I didn’t have individual conversations with everyone else in the crowd, but their general reactions seemed to match our feelings too. Everyone seemed to stay engaged. They laughed moderately at most of the jokes, leaned forward in their seats at the appropriate times and the bits of conversations I picked up leaving the theater were all blandly positive. It was like we all collectively gave it a weak thumbs up.

On my way home (before I started driving), I texted my buddy who is a big superhero fan. This is the exact copy of the message I sent him…

I assumed most reviews would fall somewhere in the 2.5-3.5 out of 5 range, and I was right. If you look on Rotten Tomatoes, the majority of them are mixed bag positives, but to my surprise, there’s a solid minority that are extremely, almost aggressively mean. That negativity (even from some huge outlets) is also mirrored on social media, where thousands of angry posts are accusing Supergirl of being some kind of embarrassing disaster. I’ve seen quite a few going a step further and saying DC needs to examine whether its entire new James Gunn franchise is even working because of how bad this movie allegedly is.

Wait, what? Maybe this is the moment where people just collectively decided they were sick of watching run-of-the-mill superhero movies, and Supergirl was the unlucky victim of that pent-up anger? Maybe fans and critics are willing to be a lot meaner and say things they wouldn’t normally say because it’s about a female superhero? Maybe DC fans have higher expectations than Marvel fans? Maybe some of the people commenting haven’t actually seen the movie and are just riled up about comments people involved made on the press tour?

I don’t know what’s going on. I’m not going to try and get in the heads of other people, but I will say that everyone I know who has seen the movie in real life, that didn’t go in with an obvious agenda, thought it was fine enough.

Fine enough as in a mixed bag. Alcock and Momoa are both quite good. Her dynamic with Superman works well, and there are a lot of fun individual scenes that keep the momentum up. That being said, there are also clearly some problems here. Most of the characters are a little one-note. The villain is weak. The soundtrack makes some odd choices. The stuff about Supergirl’s backstory doesn’t hit as hard as it should because not enough time is spent on Krypton.

It’s definitely not The Dark Knight or even Avengers 1. It’s a lot closer to something like Ant-Man And The Wasp, but instead of people talking about it like it’s Ant-Man And The Wasp, they’re talking about it like it’s Superman IV or Ghost Rider II. It’s not. Don’t listen to the people telling you it is. The truth is Supergirl is fine enough. It’s the latest mediocre superhero movie in a long line of mostly mediocre superhero movies, and while that’s not ideal, it’s better than what you’ve been hearing.