Super Movies! The one that was a Superman movie without Superman

 

Title: Supergirl

What Year?: 1984

Classification: Weird Sequel/ Improbable Experiment

Rating: It’s Okay! (3/4)

 

I’m back with another round of superhero movies, and this time we have our first sequel. I first picked up this one on my radar when I reviewed Superman 3 for the Space 1979 Threequel Trilogy. At that point, as often happens, I reviewed several movies from that especially tangled chapter of the franchise (if you’re tired of reboots now…), before deciding that the only one I could use was the one I had in mind all along. Still (also as usual), I wasn’t about to handle that much material without coming back to it sooner or later, which I suppose was a big part of how this feature came to be. So this time, I’m back with the next installment in the “original” superhero franchise, also noteworthy as the first to try replacing the hero with a heroine. Here is Supergirl, and it’s more of a mess than you probably heard.

Our story begins in the insular realm of Argo City, a city-state in the void of interdimensional space. We follow the interactions of an old man named Zaltar and his very odd niece Kara, whom he shows a relic called the Omegahedron that supplies the city’s power, which definitely should not be accessible to him. The point is proven when Kara accidentally blows the relic into the void. While Zaltar is being very justly sentenced to exile, she bolts to a transport to search for the Omegahedron on a world called Earth, where rumor tells her cousin Kal El has been making a name for herself. Kara discovers she has superpowers in Earth’s environs, which she naively experiments with, but soon assumes the alter ego of Linda Lee. Meanwhile, the Omegahedron has fallen into the hands of a self-styled witch named Selena, who simultaneously seeks world domination and a less than consensual romance with a handyman. When a misdirected love spell leaves the boy toy in love with Linda instead of Selena, our heroine finds herself in the witch’s sights. Right when it looks like the final showdown is at hand, the villainess finds a spell to send Supergirl to the Phantom Zone, where it turns out Zaltar is cooling his heels. Our heroine and her uncle must find a way back to Earth, or Selena will rein as queen forever.

As previously recounted, Supergirl arose from an attempt by producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind to continue the franchise after the apparent departure of Christopher Reeve. To that end, they introduced the character of Supergirl with a unique adversary and a new backstory seemingly at odds with that shown for Superman in both the comics and the earlier movies (though Argo City had apparently been seen before). The film was directed by Jeannot Szwarc (see Santa Claus The Movie), with Helen Slater in the title role and Faye Dunaway as Selena, after an inauspicious turn in the bio pic Mommy Dearest. Despite the borderline “reboot” premise, Marc McClure returned in the role of Jimmy Olsen, with numerous additional references to Superman and other characters from the previous films. Other supporting cast included Peter O’Toole as Zaltar and Mia Farrow as Kara’s mother. An original theme and score was provided by Jerry Goldsmith, replacing the music of one-time upstart John Williams. Two contemporary cuts were released, a 1 hr 45 min US “theatrical” cut and an “international” cut of over 2 hours; an additional 2 ½ hour “director’s cut” would later emerge on disc. The movie earned under $15 million on a $35M budget, contributing to the eventual separate production of Superman IV by the Cannon Group. (See… oh, to Hell with it all.)

At this point, I’m ready to go straight to my experience. Quite a while back, I looked this one up based on cursory descriptions that usually emphasized how different it was from the other movies. It made enough of a positive impression that I looked it up along with other movies mentioned above, and after that, things turn into a blur for a while. Among other things, it took me several months to conclude that the actual “theatrical” version has been totally unmovied, to the point that VHS tapes listed online repeatedly turned out to be one of the 2 hour cuts. Within the last few weeks, I finally bought a copy with each of the remaining versions, and watched both before I finally got around to writing this review. That all adds up to possibly the most pure legwork I’ve put into any of these reviews, and the upshot is that I’m definitely not feeling as “friendly” as I once did.

With all that out of the way, I can start with the good. Slater (best known to me for the ‘90s made-for-TV charmer 12:01 AM) is superb both as Supergirl and her alter ego, so much so that at one point I seriously double-checked if they had a different actress for Linda’s scenes. To me, it’s somehow more convincing to see her unexplained transformations from one identity to the other. As alluded, her character is odd and often childlike (at times uncomfortably so), yet always in ways that follow quite logically from the story and situations. This allows for intriguing twists on the genre formula as she discovers her powers with varying degrees of hesitation and clumsiness. (In fact, it’s somewhat suspiciously like the transformation of Peter Parker.) At the same time, she repeatedly makes confident if potentially foolhardy declarations to Selena and others who threaten her and her friends. Most interestingly, we see a corresponding learning curve for Selena, especially as she tries to use her magic without assistance from a former partner. The balance of power quickly hinges on who can master her abilities first, with plenty of convincing back and forth.

Things get hit or miss precisely when the movie tries to tie in to the preceding franchise. Far too much time is used with backstories that tie to characters we never see, obviously but not exclusively Superman himself. Again and again, it begs for the true reboot treatment; start with Supergirl, and let the big guy sit this one out. In my own personal quest, there were times I itched for a look at the theatrical cut just as proof that the movie could be cut down to size. An extra annoyance was the soundtrack, which was entirely disconcerting. I have previously written at length about my profound admiration for Jerry Goldsmith, but this movie’s theme sounds like what he might have turned in in exchange for his morning coffee. It’s still certainly not “bad”, and I won’t say the guy didn’t try, but for a composer who delivered the Deep Rising soundtrack for, well, Deep Rising, this is extremely disappointing.

Going back to the positives, the one thing this movie doesn’t get credit for at all is that it succeeds  in being “dark” long before the “gritty” reboot became compulsory. The key consideration is that this doesn’t happen all at once. We get touches when Selena turns to malign entities for power, and when the one-sided romance blooms for Linda. Then things get a big jolt when the witch summons an elemental entity to challenge Supergirl, visible only from the devastation in its wake. It’s a scene that gets made fun of, but I absolutely defend it as one of the best effects sequences in the whole 1970s/ ‘80s franchise. Finally, we have the big drop when Supergirl is dropped into the Phantom Zone, where she finds herself literally powerless.  (This coincides with an overtly comical yet reasoned sequence when the college kids try to meet Selena with protesting.) It’s wrenchingly pitiful to watch her try to fly and then crush or ignite the rocks. It’s all the more dispiriting when she meets Zaltar, already resigned to comforting himself with “squirts” from a flask he repeatedly offers, further musing, “Once you get used to it, I think it’s delicious.” Of course, the outcome is never in doubt, but it’s the journey that matters.

Finally, we’re overdue for the “one scene”, and I’m going with an early one. On first venturing into an Earth city, Kara draws the attention of two leering thugs. They openly comment on her figure, without showing any concern at her familiar uniform. She is unafraid, but innocent enough to question their behavior, which on consideration ought to have practically been weeded out by natural selection in a world where superheroes exist. In their replies, they come across like the toughs of Heavy Metal, articulate enough to express their urges without feeling a further need to justify themselves. It’s just enough to drive Supergirl to take action before departing. As the bad guys begin to recover, one says to the other, “Let’s keep quiet about this.”

What movies like this make me think of is watching a top-secret experimental Mach 3 stealth bomber crash because the pilot couldn’t relieve himself correctly. The actual fantasy/ superhero elements work perfectly well, at least when they are allowed to. It’s the mundane elements that fail over and over, a problem that similarly afflicted a film as distinguished as Hancock, but this time far too often when they were never needed. It still does enough right to rise to the rating I have given rather than getting docked down to it, but that does not dispel the feeling that it could have been so much better.

Image credit collectors.com.