Not enough kick in this 'Supergirl'

   

     Here we go again.

     DC Comics has added a new name to what feels like an infinite number of comic-book villains. It almost seems as if there are as many villains as there are drug commercials on TV. Some of these fiends even have names that sound like missed opportunities for drug companies.

     I’m sure, for example, that you can imagine being encouraged to ask your doctor about Krem, complete with quickly delivered warnings about side effects. 

     But back off, Big Pharma. Krem has been taken. The name belongs to the principal villain in the new Supergirl movie. Krem, by the way, leads the Brigands, male-dominated plunderers who capture young women for breeding purposes.

     Played by Mathias Schoenaerts, Krem's face is dotted with metal studs. He delivers his threats with underplayed menace. He's not from Earth, but he'd fit right in had he arrived in Metropolis in the heyday of late '70s punk.

       But what of Supergirl? Supergirl, a.k.a. Kara Zor-El, is Superman’s cousin. Played by Milly Alcock, Supergirl begins the movie as a hard-drinking party animal whose only companion is her rambunctious dog, Krypto.  

       Those who see the movie may be struck by the fact that most of Supergirl takes place far from Earth.  The action unfolds on planets that director Craig Gillespie and his team populate with creatures that look ready to audition for jobs as extras in Star Wars cantina scenes.

      A low-tech emphasis prevails. So, when Supergirl’s small spacecraft is stolen, she’s forced to wait at a forlorn bus stop until public transportation arrives.

       Working from a screenplay by Ana Nogueira, Gillespie abruptly drops in backstories, one involving  Kara’s escape from the planet Krypton, which pretty much mirrors what happened to Superman. 

      For most of the movie, Kara resembles a badly groomed teenager. Her disheveled mop of blonde locks leaves us wondering whether her father forgot to include a comb in the capsule that catapulted her to Earth just before the catastrophic end of Krypton.

      Early on, a reluctant Kara picks up a sidekick, young Ruthye (Eve Ridley), an embittered young woman whose parents were murdered by Krem. Ruthye doggedly tries to enlist Kara in her quest for vengeance.

       Then there’s Lobo (Jason Momoa), an intergalactic, cigar-chomping mercenarie who enters the picture as a biker who predictably will side with Kara, who -- by the way -- doesn’t don her Supergirl uniform until the movie's third act.

       Fights and action mark a movie in which production designer Neil Lamont creates a retro-comic-book environment that eschews futuristic sleekness. At times, Supergirl looks like a thrift-store version of a superhero movie, not necessarily a bad thing, and possibly a welcome reference to a time when comic books weren't considered high art.

       Superman (David Corenswet) makes an appearance. It’s not exactly a cameo, but Corenswet mostly serves to underscore the contrast between Superman’s Eagle Scout personality and that of his rebellious cousin. Kara insists on calling the Man of Steel by his mild-mannered first name, “Clark.”

         All of this unfolds against a ticking clock. Supergirl has three days to recover the antidote that will save her dog Krypto. Krem fired a weapon that poisoned Krypto, depositing the pooch at death's door. Krypto began his life on Krypton, which means that he can fly, thus saving Kara from having to walk him for exercise.

       A scene in a space bus with a pint-sized (literally) alien conductor proves amusing, but Supergirl seldom soars. When Kara puts on her uniform, battles against evil, and ascends into the sky for a celestial bow, the moment -- like too much of the movie -- feels more like a dutiful acknowledgement of Kara's identity than an exhilarating triumph.

       There are three suns in this universe. On planets with red suns, Supergirl loses her powers. Green-sun planets are even more devastating for her. Kara  operates fully as Supergirl on yellow-sun planets.  

       Should Supergirl become the central figure in future stories, I hope they take place under Earth’s yellow sun, where DC Comics tend to work best.*

*Thanks to the reader who pointed out an initial error I made about the suns in Supergirl. 

    

'Superman’ returns fun to the franchise

 Let's face it. Superman -- a.k.a. Clark Kent -- never had much of a personality. Superman's foes carried the ball all when it came to idiosyncrasy and color. In director James Gunn's Superman, the Man of Steel is ... well ... a bit of a doofus, not exactly the character created by Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster in 1938. 

   Here's a news flash, though. The Daily Planet -- the place where mild-mannered Clark Kent plies the journalist's trade -- still exists. No hedge fund has taken it over, and the paper continues to operate out of a deco building with a globe spinning on its top.

   Still, when Gunn, who also wrote the screenplay,  wants to show news developments, he creates TV news broadcasts that, alas, suggest no one is waiting for the Planet to print extras.

   But none of this is probably what you most want to know about a Superman movie that, yes, marks a revitalized franchise from Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), now co-chair of DC Studios. Gunn operates with a light touch that mixes silliness into the special effects and a somewhat messy story.

  Superman's dog Krypto proves a scene stealer whenever he shows up. Energetic and able to knock people over with a single bound, the always eager Krypto appears at various points, sometimes to the annoyance of characters who get in his way.

  Played by David Corenswet, Superman spends much of his time having an identity crisis about his purpose on Earth, but Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) provides plenty of engaged spark. For Lois, Superman's identity is no secret; she's involved in a relationship with him that resonates with love, even when they bicker.

    The villain? That would be Lex Luthor (a bald Nicholas Hoult). Hoult plays Luthor as a corporate bad guy with nefarious global ambitions and influence over the US government. Remind you of anyone? Luthor views Superman as an imbecile and devises numerous ways to slow our hero's roll as the story unfolds.

    Advance word had it that Gunn planned to unveil a more vulnerable Superman. He does. Early on, we find a bloodied Superman lying in the snow. He's just suffered what we're told is his first loss. We already know that  Superman is an alien sent to Earth by parents who lived on the dying planet of Krypton. In case we didn't, the movie does some backfilling.

    Gunn effectively utilizes Superman's crystalline Fortress of Solitude, an ice palace now equipped with robots and technology to help the wounded Superman get back on his feet. Robot No. 4 (Alan Tudyk) tends to his duties without displaying emotions, adding a hint of resentment about it.

      Somewhere along the line, a plot emerges. The fictional country of Boravia prepares for war. In early action, a warrior engineered for destruction, the so-called Hammer of Boravia, goes after Superman, who had the gall to thwart Boravia's initial assault on the neighboring country of Jarhanpur. 

      Boravia? Jarhanpur? Think Eastern Europe, an impression bolstered by Boravia's Slavic caricature of a president (Zlatko Buric).  

       Of course, Luthor has engineered all the upheaval. He even initiates a plan to turn Superman into a villain, faking and then televising a message from Superman's parents instructing their son to destroy humanity. Superman, who claims to ignore social media, suffers a reputational setback.

      Additional characters include Angela Spica (Mira Gabriela de Faria). Spica has to ability to transform her hands into buzz saws. Able to hack her way into any computer system, Spica eventually provides Superman with some powerful opposition.

     Luthor, by the way, operates out of an area called the Pocket Verse, which seems to have something to do with black holes but mostly serves as the source of some darkly hued world building.

     Other superheroes enter the fray because this Superman isn't always a solo act. Gunn doesn't insist on keeping him centerstage, and at times, I forget where the defender of truth, justice and the American way had gone. 

     When Mister Terrific (Eli Gathegi) and Green Lantern ( a funny Nathan Fillion) come to Superman's aid, they give the movie a boost.

     The always avid Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) adds humor, particularly when he's relating to his secret source of information about Luthor (Sara Sampaio), a clingy woman who wants to spend a weekend with the reluctant Jimmy.

      Oh hell, what do any of the details matter? 

      When it needs to dazzle with effects, Superman does, and Gunn and his team give a happy spin to a superhero movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, and, at the same time, isn't so busy dealing out ironic winks that it forgets its pen-and-ink ancestry.

        

‘Greatest Hits’ misses the mark

For a movie about unbearable grief and loss, The Greatest Hits turns out to be a surprisingly forgettable affair.

   Lucy Boynton plays Harriet, a woman who's. unable to recover from the death of her boyfriend Max (David Corenswet) in a terrible auto accident. 

    To make matters even more painful for Harriet, the songs she and Max once loved transport her to the past, episodes she insists are real. Now, if only Harriet could go back to the exact moment when she and Max met, she might be able to save his life. Suppose they had never done more than exchange a glance? 

   Harriet, who wears noise-cancelling earphones to avoid unwanted flashbacks, eventually meets David (Justin H. Min), a young man who falls for her. She's attracted to him but can't break the shackles of the past. 

   Austin Crute plays Harriet's best gay friend (of course, she has one); he urges her to move on.

    Director Ned Benson  (The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby) can't keep Harriet's visits to the past from feeling repetitive.

    In service of its title, the movie's time travel episodes are accompanied by a playlist that includes Ryan Lott, Roxy Music, Jamie xx, and Nelly Furtado. 

    Treating Harriet's problem literally (we watch as her present-day self relive moments in the past) diminishes the story's psychological potential as it moves toward a predictable conclusion.

     Put another way: Proust got more value from a single madeleine than this movie gets from all its songs together. Too highbrow a reference for a quasi-romcom? Probably, but if the pastry fits ....