When Superman hit theaters last summer as the first in a new line of DC comic book movies overseen by James Gunn, it was more than just another franchise reset. It was a return to the comic book character's brighter, lighter, more uplifting, and family-friendly roots after more than a decade mired in Zack Snyder's grimdark vision of a brooding, murderous, alien god. It wasn't a great movie, exactly, but it was fun and frequently charming—a movie designed for kids, not just sullen adults.
So it's rather baffling that Supergirl, the first follow-up to that film, takes the opposite tack. It's dark, depressive, and dull. Supergirl is such a thoroughly grim and charmless picture that it almost plays like an in-universe rebuke to its predecessor's light-heartedness. It's a downer of a movie in nearly every way.
