1980s Supergirl Helen Slater Gives Milly Alcock Her Seal of Approval
Never mind the DC Studios-James Gunn-Peter Safran-Warner Bros. Discovery era, Supergirl is the DC brand’s biggest failure by far of the last 30 years, bar none. The only entry that might sink lower is its multiversal cousin from 1984 starring Helen Slater, who at the time was a newcomer and didn’t have Christopher Reeve to play off. Superman was conveniently off-world for that schlockfest because the producers – the Salkinds – couldn’t secure Reeve for an appearance.
With Slater and Alcock having a role and flopping solo adventures in common, you’d expect the elder Kara Zor-El (who went by Linda Lee at a prep school) to see the new Woman of Tomorrow in action and report back with her assessment. Slater did just that, and what do you know? She gives DC Studios’s take, as well as Alcock’s portrayal, her thumbs up. They made a new fan, and it’s someone at the tippy top of the list of those they should impress.
“I loved the new Supergirl film. I thought Milly Alcock was astonishing — fierce, strong and great comic timing!” Slater raved in a recent interview. For most, on the other hand, Alcock’s performance and the film are a bit too much in the style of James Gunn, who probably had a bigger hand in the final product than first believed. Those observations are based on the box office and recent reports, respectively.
Slater, however, thinks it is right for Supergirl to catch up with the times and be reinterpreted as any mythology can be. “My understanding is that these myths should be changing,” she said. “We want reinterpretations. That keeps it alive and keeps it going. It echoes what’s happening in the culture right now. It’s fun that it evolves and keeps developing.”
“Fun” is how she describes it, but the evolving reinterpretation of mythology couldn’t have been any fun for director Craig Gillespie. It turns out many suspicions and scoops were correct; he was micromanaged by DC Studios and James Gunn into the 11th hour on Supergirl. This isn’t hard to believe since the film looks an awful lot like one of Gunn’s MCU joints, but his input goes deeper.
Reportedly, the addition of Lobo and the song choice at the end (an acoustic cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle”) that has social media so upset were Gunn’s idea. The film was also cut down by approximately ten minutes that had more of Krem, and possibly more of his backstory.
Would that extra screen time have helped the villain and the movie? Perhaps, but probably not; it doesn’t really matter. Supergirl’s crashing numbers are what they are. They speak for themselves.
