Perhaps needless to say, this is a silly movie, although will undoubtedly be entertaining for children, especially girls around adolescence – the presumed target audience in this case. Indeed, the film is noteworthy in that it is the first demonstration of the teenage super-heroine figure and indeed postulates a fantasy Earth where women have all the power and men are disposable, almost ineptly subservient and easily manipulated. However, the clash between powerful women is along generational lines – the innocent power and discovery of youth against the warped pettiness of age as the young Slater, discovering her femininity, faces the old Dunaway who resents Slater’s youthful womanhood more than anything else. Despite the unusual Matriarchal agenda, it is bathed in camp ridicule. Slater thus remains somewhat charmingly naïve through the movie whilst Dunaway’s desire to reclaim her lost youth takes on some truly pathological proportions in her romantic / sexual obsession with the handsome Bochner. However, the film deliberately avoids the homicidal megalomaniacal villains of the original Superman franchise to concentrate instead on a depiction of the abuse of power as rooted in pettiness and essentially immature jealousy. It is, however, this very emphasis on feminine pettiness and superficiality which runs the risk of making the film in the end merely trivial, a fate it does not in truth totally avoid.
It is as disposable entertainment that Supergirl has its presumed life, where its depiction of a young woman forced to adjust to a new environment and the peculiar priorities of an adult world may have some coming-of-age relevance for girls. Where the film both fails and yet is most revealing though is in the effort to create an independent pseudo-Matriarchal mythology to rival the Superman franchise. The original Superman was aware of its status as patriarchal myth, whereas Supergirl redirects the concept – it may look closer to a comic book but never attains the epic pop mythology which Superman sought and arguably undercuts the feminist allegory it provokes. Like the Superman sequels, it’s a tongue-in-cheek venture and although about the threat posed by pettiness, it locates this menace in matriarchal caricature. Thus, the pleasure and reassurance the film finds in Slater’s naivety is held against the allegorical but reactionary depiction of the demented Dunaway, seen as monstrous primarily because she intends to control the minds of men out of her resentment of her own lack of youth and perhaps desirability in comparison to Slater – lost innocence. The film explores this within a proficient Hollywood fantasy with superior effects and an engaging visual style. It thus has thematic interest but proved to be merely a light aberration before comic book adaptations turned dark and brooding with the likes of The Crow and Batman. read more