Infamous Films: Supergirl

Ah yeah, this is (the) shit!  Today's Film is Supergirl, the Film that the Salkinds couldn't salvage.  Based on recent experiences of mine, it is clear that not enough people know about the Salkind Family and what they did for Superman- right and wrong.  Basically, they ended up as Producers with the rights to the Character for awhile.  They Produced the first 3 Superman Films, basically dumped the 4th one on Cannon Films, made this Film, made the Superboy TV Show and even have an Executive Producer Credit on Superman Returns!  So yeah, they were pretty influential- you can decide in what way.  After Superman II, they though about branching out and reaching a new market.  The result- Supergirl.  In this Film, Kara is forced to leave Argo City to return a life-or-death item.  Naturally, she starts out doing that...and then enrolls in College for no good reason.  Meanwhile, the item is in the hands of...a Witch?  This is an odd one.  I should also note that I'm reviewing the Director's Cut, a Version so important that it was hidden in a Film Can marked 'Do Not Use' for nearly 30 years!  It is the definitive Version though, so let's go for it!  To find out if this deserves the infamy it has or is actually good, read on...

Somewhere in Space (don't ask for details) lies Argo City, a land where many Kryptonians are still living.  Their most famous inventor is Peter O'Toole here.

He makes the mistake of letting Kara do something and she manages to lose the city's other power source!  Within 10 minutes, she manages to doom her people!

Wow- way to build her up!

The object ends up on Earth, so Kara follows it in O'Toole's ship.  It ends up in the hands of Faye Dunaway- who is a Witch seeking power.

Naturally, this alien battery helps her cast spells...

After learning that she has powers (which she should know if she has been watching her cousin Superman) and seeing some girls in School, she changes her clothes and hair color...somehow to become Linda Lee.

Here's another weird thing: her roommate is Lucy Lane- Lois' Sister!

Now empowered greatly, Dunaway and her friend see a random Landscaper and decide to cast a Love Spell on him.

That's...that's your only goal right now?

It gets better!

When the guy wanders away before he can see Dunaway again (to fall in love), he wanders into Town...so she animates a Forklift to catch him.  Supergirl springs into action and he ends up seeing her first.

Upset, Dunaway now wants to kill Supergirl/Kara.  That is her only motivation to do so!

After a few failed attempts, Dunaway manages to capture Supergirl and send her to the Phantom Zone...somehow.  Was that place just public knowledge after the events of Superman II?

In there, she runs into O'Toole- who sent himself there as a penance- and they must find a way back.

They do, leading to a final showdown with Dunaway.  It looks bleak at first when Supergirl seems to forget that she can fly for a while.

She eventually remembers, leading to Dunaway summoning the source of her powers.  Tres freaky!

Supergirl manages to beat Dunaway by...flying around her to make a small tornado.  Sure- why not?

In the aftermath, she just flies back (without her ship!) to Argo City and...that's it, huh?  K.  The End.

This is pretty damn silly.  I have a soft spot for silly, over-the-top stuff like this though.  I like Tank Girl.  I kind of like Bates Motel.  I like Action Jackson.  Let's look at this fairly though.  The Story is just plain weird.  A Superman spin-off involving a Witch, invisible monsters (the one with lightning being shot at it) and a Cthulhu-style monster- huh?!?!?  A Superman spin-off with no appearance from Christopher Reeve- nice.  Apparently, there was talk about him making a Cameo, but that didn't happen.  Instead, you get a bit of Radio Exposition explaining that he's '70 Trillion Light Years away at a Galactic Peace Summit.'  Really, guys?  In the first 2 Films, he never left Earth and we only saw Kryptonians, so...how did this make sense?  The only real connection to the Franchise is Jimmy Olsen appearing here.  Mind you, his role involves him going to the small town to hit on Lois Lane's sister- creepy, right?  One thing that is really surprising is the caliber of people that are actually in this one.  Faye Dunaway.  Peter O'Toole.  Mia Farrow.  Peter Cook.  Wow- just wow.  The Special Effects are decent at times and not so good at others.  The Rear Projection work is a bit iffy and the use of wires is not that subtle.  The whole thing is especially silly in how it treats its female characters.  Consider this: there are 6 Comic Book Superhero Films with Female Leads.  Out of those 6, only two of them have Female Leads and Female Villains.  In Catwoman, the Villain is a Trophy Wife who works for a Make-Up Company.  In Supergirl, it is a Witch who spends the majority of the Film pining over some guy she just saw once.  Wow.  We'll see how Wonder Woman turns out.  In the meantime, check out this amusing time-capsule of a Film if you like the goofy stuff.  Just watch your skirt as you land...

Next up, another Film about an Angel courtesy of the 3-Film Set.  Let's just pray that this turns out alright.  Stay tuned...