To be perfectly honest it seemed like a rough decade for the character in general especially considering after this movie Crisis On Infinite Earths happened and Supergirl got axed literally out of existence. But let's turn the clock back to 1984, Superman III is already out and through several scripts Supergirl is released to...less than favorable reception. Pretty much bombed at the box office, not a good word toward it from critics, and is now viewed as a secular oddity in comic book movie history. I mean the plot isn't god awful with Kara venturing to Earth to retrieve a magical MacGuffin and has to combat a sorceress named Selena, that has potential and indeed the Super family battles magic users all the time so it's not too out there. But the execution is really what kills it. I mean the cast is decent, Helen Slater just looks like Supergirl and has that wide eyed curiosity and joy that we never really got to see from her famous cousin. Faye Dunaway is our villain and is appropriately over the top, practically eye banging the camera throughout and while her schemes never really get off the ground till near the end the use of magic is inventive. Somehow, I don't know how, they got fucking Peter O'Toole in this movie and he really was my favorite character essentially the architect of Kara's city, and being the hardcore professional he is he brought a lot of charm and dare I almost say gravitas with his delivery no matter how outlandish the film is around him. Hart Bochner is Kara's semi-love interest and despite being introduced pretty early on doesn't have much to do which is a shame cause I feel like there's an okay romance on the cutting room floor. Speaking of which! The post production was a bit of a fiasco to say the least, strained relationship between the production company and Warner Bros., the film didn't even get released here in the States, the film was cut from two odd hours down to about 90 minutes, it really does just look like the world was against Supergirl from the word go. And while indeed the movie is fluff to an extreme, it's very Silver Age in it's plot and characters, the plot is loose and slipstream, it's very kiddy, and while the Christopher Reeve Superman movies were on a downward spiral you always had at least moments of character and drama, it's a far cry from what people would think a comic book movie is nowadays. But it's not unwatchable, I feel like this is a screaming instance where a good movie exists but it just had too many cooks in the kitchen spoiling the soup. It got me to smile, it got a chuckle out of me, I dig Helen as Supergirl, I really loved Peter O'Toole, it even captures just a little bit of that magic seeing Superman fly from the first movie when Kara arrives on Earth which is not an easy feat, it has moments to it! I watched the 2 hour version and while I didn't love it, I'm happy I got to see this little corner of history and when the hell would I have ever gotten around to reviewing this if not for the new movie? Far from great, definitely not for most, but it still has an impact all these years since. They literally cast Helen as the adoptive mother of then current Supergirl Melissa Benoist on the TV show, someone was clearly a fan. I give it 1.5 stars, 5/10, but we got one more stop before hitting the theater on Friday so look up for the next one.
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