SUPERGIRL (1984)

SUPERGIRL REVIEWED

“Supergirl” meant well. It was a girl power, female centric movie designed to correct the mistakes of Superman III. Everyone tried really hard and hiring the director of Jaws 2 meant a lot more in 1984. Ultimately, the film is incomprehensible mess. Well, that is if you live in America and never saw it past the original cut. It seems like the more this film changed hands from Warner Brothers to TriStar Pictures and back to Warner Archive, new things were uncovered. If you haven’t seen the film in ages, you’ll be surprised. This film was the first attempt to explain Supergirl, Argo City, the Phantom Zone and the extended Lane family. Hell, Marc McClure’s Jimmy Olsen got more character development here than in any of the Donner flicks. Ultimately, the side characters and B plots weren’t that hampered. The nearly 30 minutes of cuts slashed Faye Dunaway’s witch character to pieces. Nothing made sense about where Argo City existed in the Donner-verse. Hell, at points it seemed like the entire city of Metropolis was going out of its way to ditch Supergirl. If you take the time to watch the extended cut on the bonus DVD, it’s not going to save the film. However, it’s going to make the magical elements make sense. Plus, you’ll get an idea of how Supergirl properly became Supergirl. For those that haven’t seen it, the American cut has Supergirl get sucked out of a whole and then spat out of a lake onto Earth. Imagine your dear writer and a ton of friends as little kids just getting pissed and wanting to turn the movie off there. Hell, I vividly remember having meltdowns over the fact that I thought someone messed up my VHS tape. Still, it’s an experience and this is the kind of thing that Warner Archive excels at creating. The WB backlog is deep and specialty titles like this need to be shown a degree of love by all. Go out and buy it. Don’t wait a few months to hear it discussed on 80s All Over and then see it. Be prepared!

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