Supergirl 1984 Film Review

Believe it or not even tho the character of Supergirl is a somewhat popular character she has to date only had the one live action movie. Well this is something that does change as this Friday we get the second DCU film release which just so happens to be the second ever live action Supergirl movie and as such I thought that i'd take a look at the original as afterall there's really no way that the 2026 film is going to be as bad as this one is and so then join me as I review the film that for some odd reason has Supergirl fighting invisible monsters with the film in question being called simply just "Supergirl" enjoy.

The plot of this film is after she losses her planets only source of power a device called the Omegahedron Kara Zor-El heads to earth to find it and while there she has to prevent a witch from taking over the world. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty pretty bad. As the second that Kara gets to earth the film just straight up forgets all about the Omegahedron and why she is there in the first place with them not even cutting back to showing how the citizens of Argo City are suffering. With the film being more focused on the less interesting witch plot which eats up alot of the films running time look granted you need a reason for Kara to go to earth in the first place and to be fair having her chasing this device that will save her people is a good enough reason to go to earth in the first place but the film just straight up shoves that plot aside in favor of the witch plot which becomes the films main plot and it's just that interesting as it does come across as being the stereotypical superhero plot where an insane person wants to take over the world and that's and while that kind of plot does still work there needs to be something literally anything added to it to make it interesting and that's something that this film doesn't do with the plot about the Omegahedron being the more interesting of the two plots and if the film did focus more on that plot and have the witch plot serve more as the films subplot rather then it's main plot then this film would have a much more better plot to it with the plot of this film not really being really rather entertaining and as well as not really being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Helen Slater as Kara Zor-El / Linda Lee / Supergirl , Faye Dunaway as Selena and Peter O'Toole as Zaltar. Also starring in this film is Hart Bochner as Ethan , Mia Farrow as Alura In-Ze , Brenda Vaccaro as Bianca , Peter Cook as Nigel , Simon Ward as Zor-El , Back To The Future star Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen , Maureen Teefy as Lucy Lane , David Healy as Mr. Danvers and Matt Frewer as Eddie.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. You can tell that the films actors are indeed trying to turn in a good performance just from the fact that they somehow managed to get some really good actors to star in this film and yet this films director Jeannot Szwarc just doesn't give any of his actors some actual direction which does lead them to feeling lost and unsure of what kind of a performance to give with some loke both Faye Dunaway and Peter O'Toole turning these more over the top performances whereas someone like for example Helen Slater delivers a more grounded performance. With the best actor in this whole entire film being Helen Slater as she is just so perfectly cast in this film is she as good as Christopher Reeve is as Superman? no but to be fair no one is and it would have bee foolish of her to try and copy what he did with Superman and try to portray Kara the same way that he portrayed Superman and to be fair she does do her best to make Kara seem a really likeable person with the only real fault with her performance being the fact that she does play it a bit to safe for her own good as she very easily could have given Kara some attitude which given the situation that she's in would have made sense but again to be fair to her when push does come to she she does step up and actually show us some form of emotion. With the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Whilst this is necessarily a knock against the film as this is something that the makers of this film just couldn't help but there are some issues in regards o the films effects. As while the films effects are miles better then those seen in Superman: IV: The Quest For Piece you can tell alot of the time that Helen Slater was filmed against a bluescreen as in some of the effects shots you can see a thin blue line all around her this is something that doesn't take away from the film nor is it something that the makers of this film could have helped as the technology might not have been there to fix this issue but it is something that does stand out a mile and it's something that does distract you from the film in the first place. The films effect are overall really good which is something that does make sense as the makers of this film did get alot of the people who did the effects work on the original Thunderbirds TV series to work on this film but at the same time tho you do get the feeling that this was a rushed production as the film doesn't show of alot of it's effects with even the films big final monster being mostly hidden away by smoke which does make it look like that they were ashamed to show it of and even all of the creatures that Kara does fight in the film being invisible when the film had more then enough money to make them for real, however tho by not showing us that much of the films final monster it does mean that the makers of this film can put more into making the films flying scenes look good and while it is here that we do get the blue line around Helen the films flying scenes do look really good when there not being filmed against a blue screen.

Much like the upcoming 2026 film this film is oddly enough also a spin off of a Superman movie altho here Superman and Lois don't appear in the film with the only character to crossover to this film being Jimmy Olsen. Which is fine as it does make sense for his character to be the link between the two films and while the film does explain why Superman isn't going to be in the film they very easily could have had Lois Lane appear in minor role as a mountain appearing out of nowhere is something that would be big news and it would be something that would grab her attention or even if she doesn't come to see the mountain since Lucy is her sister she could just be there to visit her and it would still make sense yet for one reason or another the film just doesn't have her appearing in the film. This is something that does make the link between the two films very small as while they do set up the fact that Kara and Clark are cousins due to him not appearing in this film we don't get a scene between them where he pretty much hands the film over to her and with Lois being out of the picture this film really did need a heavy hitting Superman character to appear in this film to really hit home the fact that these films are meant to be set in the same fictional universe and while Jimmy is a good enough character for that nobody goes to a Superman movie to see Jimmy they go to see Superman and with Lois and Clark not appearing in the film it does make it feel like that the idea of the two films being connected was a very last minuet one as Jimmy plays no part in the films plot and only appears in about two maybe three scenes in the whole film and that's it heck his part in the film is so small that it might as well be a cameo role as that's how little of an impact that Jimmy Olsen has on the plot of this film.

For reasons that are unknown to anyone except the makers of this film they chose to have a romance angle in this film. Granted yes it could be argued that the first Superman film also kind of had a romance angle in it as well with the whole Lois and Superman flying together scene but that scene was just a one off scene that was meant to show Lois growing closer to Superman and it plays no part in the plot of that film where as here the romance between Kara and Ethan does play a huge part in the plot of the film and while that's not a bad thing persay but you don't go to a Superman movie expecting there to be lots of romantic scenes in it and with this film it does feel like the makers of this film only added them in because of the fact that Supergirl is a girl. Look to be fair here this is something that doesn't take away from the film as it does give Kara more of a reason to stay on earth if she wanted to but it's also something that doesn't work for this film plot as Kara is meant to only have a few shorts days before the people of Argo City die and therefor she can't afford to be spending alot of time falling in love with someone and yet the makers of this film seem to forget the Argo City part of the film as its inconvenient for them and therefor the have Kara take more time then what she has in finding this device by having her fall in love and having her spend time with this boy that she apparently loves and that loves her back this is something that would have worked better if the plot didn't demand that she be back in Argo City within a few days time as then you could have had the characters spend more time together and get to know each other and fall for each other at a more natural pace but due to the plot they have to quite literally fall in love at first sight with the characters not even having that many scenes alone together.

The films main villain Selena is easily both the best and worst character in the whole entire film she's the worst character in that for some odd reason they give her alot of jokes which just undercuts how much of a threat that she thinks she is. However she's also the films best character in that Faye Dunaway is clearly having a blast playing her and quite clearly knows that she's in a bad film and that kind of fun is something that does make the scene with the character alot of fun to watch as while yes the character should have been alot of more better written as she does come across as being a lesser version of Lex Luthor even down to her having her own comedy side kick character. Yet Selena's plan is perhaps the weakest aspect pf her character due to the fact that it is just the generic villain plan with the only difference being that Selena is a witch and that's really it heck we don't even get to find out why she wants to rule the world in the first we just get told that she wants to rule the world which doesn't make her an interesting villain compare this to Lex in the first Superman film we find out why he's planning on blowing up the California coast line and we get to see just how crazy he is in the first place this is something that does make him a more interesting villain and while Selena does come more close to getting rid of Supergirl then Lex did with Superman its Lex that people remember more as there was more thought and effort put into his character where as with Selena it does come across as the makers of this film just didn't bother to make her a good character and therefor they just in the bare amount of effort to make her character work in the first place and my god does it show as she had all of the potential to be a really good villain she just needed the writing to back her up and that's really all she needed in the first place.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and four minuets and thirty four seconds. This is pretty much the bogstandard running time for all of these early Superman films as alot of them do have very similar running times to them however tho this film really didn't need to be that long as all this film needed to was set up the main plot and why Kara is on earth and thats it and yet because of the fact that the film does take so many detours we do end up with a film that is alot more longer then what it really should have been as you very easily could have cut this film down to one hour and thirty minuets just by removing all of the pointless filler scenes in the film with the film having more then enough plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. The film doesn't really use its running time all that wisely as the film doesn't really take the time to fully develop its plot this is is mainly due to the fact that the film does spend more time then what it really should have done in setting up everything about Supergirls life on earth as we see her spend time enrolling at the same school as Lucy as well as taking a class there and showing her sneaking in and out of dorm room several times alot of which are scenes that aren't needed as that is screen time that would have been better used in adding things to the plot of the film in order to make it feel more well developed yet due to the fact that the makers of this film are more focused on giving us a three way romance between Kara , Ethan and Selena then it is in giving us a more well thought out and developed plot. This is somethin that's also true for the films lack of character development as despite the fact that the film does gave more then enough time to give any of the films character quite literally any sort of character development there are no scenes in this film where the character do start to grow as characters with all of them remaining in the same place at the end of the film then they were at the start of the film and yet yet the makers of this film did seem to be more focused on on having Kara fight invisible monsters then they were in giving the films characters any sort of character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action thats actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty pretty good. As despite the fact that Kara is mainly fighting against invisible creatures in this film the films action does end up being alot more better then what it really had any right to be as by all rights this films action should have been really bad yet you can tell that there was actual effort put into giving us some not good but also not that bad action scenes in this film. With the best action scene in the whole entire film also being one of the first action scenes in the film as when Selena puts Ethan under a love spell and commends a local digging machine to pick him up and carry Ethan to her the machine wrecks several buildings in the town with it even causing a fire with it only being then that Linda sees what's happening and transforms into Supergirl and takes the machine head on by ripping its digger off of it with her also taking the time to fix some of the more essential messes that it caused in the town as well as make sure that a knocked out Lucy is OK, this was a really fun filled action scene as it not only got Supergirl out into the public where she she could do the most good but it also showed of parts of Kara's character by showing us that she is a good person who is always willing to do what's right which Ok fair enough is really generic but it was also something that worked not only for the character but this scenes as well with the films films action not really being as good in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall no matter how bad that the 2026 film ay or may not end up being we know at the very least that it won't be as bad as this film as this film was so bad that there wasn't another Supergirl film for decades with her only other live action appearance was the live action The CW show as that's really just how bad that this film really is in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.