Media Reviews

  The movie starts in Argo City, which was once located on Krypton before the planet exploded. Zaltar, Argo’s great geniuses played by Peter O’Tool, was able to shield the city with an impenetrable force field while also sending the entire city into another dimension known as Inner-Space. We find young Kara Zor-El, who even though she has never been outside of Argo City knows she’s Superman’s cousin. After accidentally losing the Omega Hedron, a small metal ball that powers the city, Kara steals a ship and goes after it. She soon emerges from a lake in full Supergirl outfit. It is never explained how she got it.   Using a bracelet as a guide for finding the Omega, Kara for some strange reason decides to join an all girls’ school, and play field hockey, before once again setting out to find the Omega   The movie’s villaness is Selena, an amateur witch played by Fay Dunaway who happens to find the Omega. Actually, it falls into her potato salad during a picnic. It’s not long before Selena harnesses the power of the Omega to do evil things, causing Supergirl to spring into action. One such sequence involves Kara saving a town from a rampaging tractor.

  

Soon Supergirl and Selena have a show down that result in Kara being sent to the Phantom Zone. Unable to use her powers, she meets up with her mentor Zaltar, who exiled himself after taking responsibility for Kara losing the Omega. With Zaltar’s help, Kara is able to escape the Phantom Zone and face down Selena once more, this time she is victorious. Regaining the Omega, Kara ventures back to Argo City in time to save her people.   The movie greatly suffers from its lack of a cohesive plot. There are too many holes for even the most avid fan to grasp. The biggest one is why during a time when her people could be dieing do to lack of power does Kara choose to go to school and play kissy-face with a gardener instead of looking for the Omega?   On top of this, the movie lacks a strong villain. Instead of having a villain like Lex Luthor who is willing to blow up the entire Western seaboard so he can have prime real estate, we have Dunaway playing a hammy witch whose only main beef with Supergirl is that the muscular gardener happens to like Kara over her.   Still, the movie does have several great qualities to it, mainly in the form of its leading lady Helen Slater. Not only does her strong, strapping frame more then fill the Supergirl costume, but also her easygoing, yet confident performance really brings Supergirl to life.

Some of the movies best moments are Kara’s ballet like flying moves when she first takes flight. Another great sequence is when Supergirl charges up a light post with lighting bolts and uses it against a gigantic invisible monster.

  Another plus is Jerry Goldsmith’s musical score, which like John Williams “Superman Theme” gives the movie an epic feel, especially during the opening credits.

  There are several edited versions of this movie. Most people in North America may be use to the heavily edited 105-minute version. However, in August of 200 Anchor Bay Entertainment released the International version, which runs at the full 125 minutes and is offered in wide and full screen on VHS and DVD. Also released was the extended Limited Edition DVD Director’s Cut, which runs at 138 minute.

Memorable Line: “I am Kara…daughter of Alura and Zor-El. And I don’t scare easily.”