With a brand new Supergirl movie coming out later this month, I figured now was as good of a time as any to take a look at the girl of steel’s first movie. I won’t be going into a full synopsis of this movie and will instead mostly be covering my thoughts on the film while also referencing some of the special features included in the Blu-Ray set including the commentary with Jeannot Szwarc and Scott Michael Bosco as well as The Making of Supergirl documentary. Generally I try to stay away from right out reviewing works but for this I do plan to convince you to check out the movie if you’ve not already or convince you to give it another chance if you’re not a fan.
I have long been a supporter of the 1984 Supergirl movie and I can’t see myself ever hating it. This movie was released in 1984 to what can politely be called poor reception. The movie had a $35 Million budget and only managed a $14.3 Million box office easily giving it a status of being a box office flop. I’ve seen this movie quite a few times at this point (heck I watched it twice in the past week) and I still think its a fantastic time. It was probably after the 4th or 5th time watching when I finally took a look at the Rotten Tomato scores and it baffled me. I will admit that this is by no means a perfect movie, but the Rotten Tomato scores are entirely too harsh and I’m sure there is some amount of review bombing that went into the poor score on that review site.
While there are a lot of things I love about this film, I do have issues and distastes for parts of it. Ethan is probably the biggest problem I have with the storyline, I feel like his inclusion is unnecessary to the Supergirl/Selena conflict, forcing a romance plot into the story didn’t make sense, and the exact sequence of events that lead to the pair falling for each other seems a tad dicey. That being said, there are quite a few pre-crisis Supergirl romance stories that play out exactly like this plot and I could easily see it being a comic story. There is a bit of absurdity to this movie and sometimes the camp goes a bit past what I personally go for, part of that is seen in Selena’s house/abandoned amusement park. It feels just a touch too much for me and it just seems goofy for the sake of being goofy. The last thing that kind of puts me off is Marc McClure’s portrayal of Jimmy Olsen. I don’t mind Jimmy’s inclusion and the connective tissue that it creates between this and the Chris Reeve Superman movies is important, however I just don’t care for how passive he’s portrayed. Jimmy in this movie just doesn’t do much more than act opposite Lucy Lane and his initial lines when he’s introduced just make him seem rather non-heroic talking about how he doesn’t want to help the obviously dazed Ethan wandering in the streets.
There are 3 things in this film that are undeniably fantastic, Faye Dunaway’s performance as Selena, Helen Slater’s performance as Supergirl, and the brilliant “Aerial Gymnastics”. Faye Dunaway gets top billing in the movie and she definitely pulls her weight. Dunaway has fantastic line delivery and screen presence throughout the entire movie while never trying to overshadow Slater’s performance as Supergirl. This is Slater’s first leading theatrical role and she was just 19 and right out of a performing arts high school when she landed the role. Helen’s acting is even more impressive when considering that she’s in some ways playing 3 characters, Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, and Linda Lee (who Helen didn’t realize was Supergirl’s secret identity until her 4th audition).
Lastly the Aerial Gymnastics, the flying sequences, which according to Szwarc was a different and new process to what was seen in the Chris Reeve films and it really shows. Durring the documentary Szwarc said “Superman is more power and strength and Supergirl [is] elegance, grace, and style” and the way that the flying differs between the 2 super cousins in these films really shows this. Supergirl’s flying sequences in this movie (and there’s a lot!) are brilliant and show a grace and excitement in Supergirl’s portrayal that help explore the character as a fun-loving teenager that suddenly has a new world to explore and new super-powers to try out.
There is something that comes up a lot in the commentary and documentary about this movie taking a more fantasy approach as opposed to the sci-fi approach that Superman took. There’s a lot of easy comparisons to Snow White particularly especially Selena’s mirror, similar to the Magic Mirror, however the commentary also brought to my mind the young/old parallel here that both Snow White had with the old witch and Supergirl has with Selena. This fantasy inspiration is further expanded upon in the commentary with Szwarc’s mention of The Wizard of Oz. The Oz connection is much less obvious but you can definitely make comparisons after knowing this fact.
With the fantasy elements we also get the ability to show off a new threat to Kryptonians. At this point, the public had been exposed to 3 Superman movies where he faces off against a criminal mastermind, aliens, and super computers so letting Supergirl face off against magic, which had long been a threat to Kryptonians in the comics. I think this was a brilliant choice by the creators to help set Supergirl apart from her cousin and give the audiences another look at what can take on a Kryptonian without resorting to Kryptonite.
Speaking of, Kryptonite isn’t in this movie at all, not even a mention of it. However, the Omegahedron is similarly affected by lead like Kryptonite would be. Lead of course blocks the radiation of Kryptonite and is often used in Superman stories to block the Kryptonite from harming the man of steel. In this movie, the Omegahedron is kept in a dragon box that is made out of lead when Selena is not using it and being in this lead box prevents the signal of it from being noticed by Supergirl’s bracelet.
I have long since know that there was a early version of this story that included Chris Reeve as Superman, but it was in the commentary that Szwarc expanded upon his inclusion. Apparently it would’ve replaced the scene at the corm where Supergirl faces off against the Shadow Monster which is one of the cooler scenes of the movie. According to Szwarc, there would’ve been events that happened that caused Superman to loose his powers and become old. It’s possible Szwarc’s description of the scene just wasn’t very good or that it would’ve played out much better if it was actually filmed, but to me it just doesn’t seem very good and I think the movie is better off without that scene, especially if it would’ve replaced the Shadow Monster scene.
Part of what makes this movie so impressive to me is the honestly fantastic effects. I’ve already touched on the wirework that was done for all of Helen’s flying scenes but the effects throughout are really spectacular. The film relies a lot on practical effects which helps the movie stand up 40+ years later. One of the craziest parts of the documentary was learning that the town of Midvale was built from scratch as a massive set. I’m sure having a full city built as opposed to filming on location helped a lot in the extensive destruction done by the bulldozer, which in itself is a fantastic sequence. The only effect that, in my opinion, aged poorly was near the end when the Shadow Monster has Supergirl in its hands and is pulling and twisting the girl of steel. This is accomplished in the movie with green screens and stretching some elements but it comes off as cheap and ineffective. In the commentary there is mention that if it were to be done in modern times it would’ve been much more successful with CGI.
Somewhat related, is the stunning set pieces presented here. There are 3 major sets that all have drastically different environments. The aforementioned Midvale quite successfully presents a mid-west American town complete with a Popeye’s fast food chain. Argo City, a staple of Supergirl lore, makes it’s film debut here and it’s quite an interesting presentation. The city is full abstract shapes and open rooms that sets it apart from the cold crystalline Krypton that was shown in the Superman movies. The most impressive location however is the Phantom Zone. Not only is the Zone fantastically rendered as a desolate helpless place, it also has some great scenes where Slater is able to stretch her acting a bit where she is able to act devastated and hopeful in such drastic and extreme directions.
I’d also like to talk about Zaltar. An original character created for this movie who hasn’t shown up in comics since (for what seems to be legal issues). Zaltar is the creator of Argo and the reason that this section of the doomed planet was able to survive into inner space. It’s weird that Zaltar is shown as the creator/founder of Argo in this movie when Kara’s father, Zor-El, normally fills this role. Perhaps they didn’t want to show Supergirl’s father sentenced to the Phantom Zone, but it still feels odd. The opening of the movie has a sequence of events where Zaltar is telling Kara about exploring past inner space and into outer space and eventually visiting planets like Saturn and Venus and Earth. When he mentions his plans to Kara and how the events played out, it seems like Zaltar’s actual plan was to explore the Phantom Zone. Between him so easily showing Kara how to use the Omegahedron and his willingness to be sentenced to the Zone really makes me think that was the unknown he wanted to explore as opposed outer-space.
I could probably go on and on about this movie for much longer talking about all the things I love about it (like how thoroughly Supergirl’s powers are shown even including Super-Intelligence), but I think I’ll keep it here for right now. Before totally signing off, listening to the commentary of the film let me know that the film had a drastically reduced run-time when initially shown domestically from it’s initial International theatrical run. I think to some extent this could’ve contributed to the general poor reception that this film has. Since the International Release is the main feature on the Blu-Ray set that’s the version I generally watch and what my love of the film is based on. This is by no means the last time I’ll talk about this movie, I have the comic, novel, and storybook adaptations of the movie that will probably each get their own post in the future. I’d also love to take a look at the Director’s cut that’s included with the Blu-Ray as well as taking a look at the shorter American theatrical version if I can find a nice way to watch it. I might also take deeper dives into specific scenes of the movie like the Phantom Zone. I also already covered something of the movie last year when looking at the Supergirl (1984) Press Packet. If you’ve gotten this far into me rambling about this movie and you haven’t seen it, please give it a shot, don’t let the hate keep you from checking it out.
The Daring New Blog of Supergirl 
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