Years ago, I ran a WordPress blog called Retrospective Rewriting. In it, I would analyse a film from a screenwriting perspective and explore how the story could have been stronger. It was a chance to flex my creative muscles—to indulge that obsessive storyteller part of my brain that can’t resist trying to fix a broken narrative and make it more emotionally compelling.
I stopped writing those articles for a couple of reasons. Partly because it began to feel as though I was taking shots at fellow writers and filmmakers, but mostly because life simply got in the way.
Every now and then, though, a film comes along that gives me that itch again. None more than Supergirl.
There has been a lot of polarising posts on social media about this film. A contingent of (mostly) men review-bombed it before it came out, simply because it had the audacity to have a female protagonist.
Others have sung its praises, so when my wife and I went to see it, I was genuinely hopeful.
Did I think it was a bad film? No.
Did I think it was a great film? Also no.
What did I like? The casting. Milly Alcock is phenomenal, while Jason Momoa looks as though he was born to play Lobo.
What didn’t I like? The pedestrian plot, the one-dimensional characters, the reliance on coincidence, and the uninspired planet designs.
As I watched, I kept thinking back to the first two Thor films. Not because both feature powerful blond protagonists with long, flowing hair, but because they offer a perfect example of how much a villain can shape a story.
In the first Thor, Loki is a fascinating antagonist, driving what is essentially a Shakespearean family drama between two brothers. Kenneth Branagh’s film isn’t perfect, but it understands a fundamental truth of storytelling: a hero is only as compelling as the villain standing in their way.
Then came Thor: The Dark World. This time, the antagonist was Malekith, ruthless leader of the Dark Elves. He was evil because the script said he was evil, and that’s about as much depth as he was given. Christopher Eccleston, an actor capable of far more, was completely wasted in a role with almost nothing to work with.
Which brings me back to Supergirl. The reason I keep thinking about Thor: The Dark World isn’t the hero. It’s the villain.
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM HERE ON. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
The main villain of Supergirl is Krem of the Yellow Hills, a pirate who specialises in trafficking people, particularly young girls.
The film establishes his evil credentials early by having him murder Ruthye’s family in the opening scenes. It also telegraphs his villainy visually, covering him in piercings and giving him the sort of look that wouldn’t feel out of place among the Ravagers in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s a significant departure from his comic-book appearance, but that’s not my issue.
My first problem with the script comes immediately afterwards. Krem murders Ruthye’s family but leaves her alive, presumably because he doesn’t see her as a threat. But if he’s a trafficker of young women, why doesn’t he take her? More puzzling still, why doesn’t he steal the weapons that he and his men supposedly came to the farm to collect? The scene creates questions the film never answers.
After this opening salvo, we cut to Kara Zor-El, a bar-hopping saviour of nowhere. Through a series of non-linear flashbacks, we gradually learn why she’s drinking herself into oblivion. Unlike her super-cousin, Kal-El, Kara grew up on Argo, the last surviving fragment of Krypton. She watched her civilisation slowly die from kryptonite radiation, including her own mother, before her father, Zor-El, launched her into space to reunite with Kal-El on Earth.
We don’t see Kara’s departure until much later, but it’s worth mentioning here because it exposes another weakness in the story. Why did Zor-El build only one escape pod? Argo City isn’t facing immediate destruction; it’s dying a slow, inevitable death. There was time to explore this decision in greater depth.
I’d have loved to see Kara refuse to leave her father behind, forcing him to knock her unconscious before launching the pod. I’d also have liked a clearer explanation for why Kara wasn’t affected by the radiation. Perhaps Zor-El had spent what little remained of Krypton’s resources shielding his daughter, sacrificing both himself and his wife so that she could live.
That sort of trauma would drive anyone to the bottom of a bottle.
Returning to the main story, the inciting incident doesn’t actually happen when Kara rescues Ruthye from the alien attempting to claim her family’s sword. It comes the following day, when Ruthye asks Kara to help her hunt down Krem. It’s already a coincidence that the two happen to be on the same planet, but then Krem and his surviving crew literally stumble across Kara’s ship and steal it. That’s one coincidence too many.
The logic becomes even shakier when you remember that Krem later turns out to command a huge pirate vessel with an army at his disposal. If that’s the case, why didn’t his crew come looking for him after his scout ship was destroyed? The film never even acknowledges the question.
The same issue crops up with Krypto. After Krem poisons everyone’s favourite flying dog, we’re told he has only three days to live. By this point, the film has already established that Kara receives regular messages from her caring cousin, Superman. If someone poisoned my dog and I needed an antidote, my first call would be to my extended family of superheroes. Maybe Earth is simply too far away—but if that’s the case, the film should at least address it. Instead, the possibility is ignored completely, leaving another noticeable hole in the story’s internal logic.
The moment that felt most artificial, though, was Ruthye giving Kara her Supergirl costume. We’re told, almost in passing, that Ruthye found it aboard Kara’s ship on Bilquis and took it because it looked important. That’s the entire explanation. There’s no emotional reason for Kara to wear it, no character beat that earns the moment. She puts it on because the audience expects to see Supergirl dressed as Supergirl.
With those issues in mind, here’s a rough outline of how I would have structured the film instead.
SUPERGIRL (RETROSPECTIVE REDUX)
OPENING IMAGE: A puppy wanders alone through the poisoned ruins of Argo City. Buildings have collapsed into the streets, their crystal skeletons crumbling beneath an endless grey sky. This is the dying heart of Krypton.
He wanders into a neglected garden. The trees are withered, their branches as lifeless as the city around them. A young girl, Kara Zor-El, stands before a fresh grave, marked with a headstone of crystal, showing an image of her mother, frozen in time. Krypto approaches Kara. She picks him up. He licks the tears from her face. She smiles. They are friends for life.
CUT TO: PRESENT DAY – Krypto licking Kara’s face. She is older now, hungover. Her ship is a sorry state. She has a message from Clark (Kal-El). It plays while she vomits. He mentions a fight they had before she left Earth. In anger, she throws something at the communication screen, breaking it. “Shit. Better find someone who can fix that.”
She cans for nearby planets – and finds the nearest one – Evely. She heads there.
Evely is a very rural planet – sparsely populated. Kara lands near a local town and heads to the nearest watering hole to get a drink and find someone to repair her communication screen.
She asks around and receives no help. A young girl, Ruthye, overhears her, and says her brother could fix it.
Kara lands at the family farm and is immediately welcomed into Ruthye’s world. Elias jokes with his children while Delilah fusses over Krypto, who happily accepts every treat she’s willing to give him. Watching the family together stirs memories Kara has spent years trying to drown in alcohol.
Ruthye’s brother Emond is good with tech, but her father Elias is a master swordsmith. Kara admires his work. His swords have a special quality that make them extra sharp and durable, making them very desirable. Meanwhile, Krypto makes fast friends with Ruthye’s mum, Delilah, who feeds him extra treats. Emond announces he has finished repairing her screen.
Kara returns to the town to get drunk. While she is there, she spouts off about Elias’ swords to Emond, who has snuck away with her to party. Emond asks her to not be so loud, as their conversation is attracting attention from all sorts of unsavoury types, including Krem.
NEXT MORNING: Kara wakes up, hungover, unable to remember much from the night before. Someone is banging on the door of her ship. It is Ruthye. She is half-dead. She mutters something before falling unconscious. “The weapons.”
Kara realises, with growing horror, that she may have led Krem straight to the family. She flies to Ruthye’s farm, but she is too late. Ruthye’s family lie slaughtered. Krem and his men are loading up Elias’ weapons onto their ship. However, Evely has a red sun, so she is powerless to stop Krem and his men.
Krypto finds Delilah’s body first. He nudges her hand, waiting for her to wake. When she doesn’t, he turns on Krem with a furious bark.. Krem shoots Krypto with a poison dart. Kara runs to his aid, only to be knocked out by the blast of the ship taking off.
Unconscious – Kara has a flashback to her mother, alive, and then later, dying.
Kara wakes up in a panic. She is in a tent of a local healer. Krypto is unconscious.
While Kara heals, Ruthye buries her family. She unlocks a hidden floor panel in the smouldering ruins of her family’s farm, and finds two daggers in sheaths, beautifully crafted handles. We do not see the blades.
Ruthye comes to see Kara, now wearing the daggers. The healer speaks in a language Kara does not understand. Ruthye translates – Krypto has been poisoned, and will die in three days unless Kara gets the antidote from Krem. Ruthye says she is going to find Krem, recover her father’s stolen sword, and kill Krem with it. Ruthye asks Kara to join her on quest of revenge. Kara says she will come with her to get the antidote, but tells Ruthye killing Krem will not bring her peace.
Kara calls Clark to tell him about Krypto. Clark says he wouldn’t make it to the system she is in for a week. She says she’s on her own then. Clark pauses, and says he may know someone who can help find Krem.
LOBO! Lobo arrives on Evely and negotiates terms with Ruthye and Kara. At first he refuses, because they have nothing to pay him with. He asks about the daggers. Ruthye says they are nothing special. As he walks away, Ruthye says he can have her most valuable possession. Her father’s sword. This piques Lobo’s interest. He agrees to find Krem, in exchange for her father’s sword. Ruthye agrees, but only after she has used it to kill Krem.
Lobo follows Krem’s trail to the industrial planet of Bilquis. There is something here that Krem wants, perhaps chemical for making drugs or rare metals. Now with all the weapons they got from Elias, they can get it.
ACT TWO
The pirates enact their plan, killing people as they pull off a daring heist.
Kara and Lobo attack the pirates in the middle of a heist. Bilquis has a yellow sun, so Kara has her powers.
Kara suggests they go in quietly, but Lobo doesn’t listen and goes in guns blazing.
They fight the pirates, but Kara has to let Krem go in order to save Ruthye.
The pirates escape. Lobo and Kara argue because he blames her for them getting away. Also, Lobo has been cut in half, and the pirates have stolen his legs.
Lobo tracks the pirates to Barenton. Lobo laughs. Barenton is in the centre of a binary star system with a green and yellow star. Lobo says the pirates are clever, they knew Kryptonian wouldn’t go there. Kara says good, they won’t see her coming, but she insists that they do it her way. Lobo, sans legs, is in no position to argue.
They fly Kara’s ship to Barenton. The pirates ship is docked for repairs on the surface. Kara waits for the green sun to set and yellow one to rise before flying down.
She infiltrates the ship silently ,searching for Krem. She finds a part of the ship with a number of animals. She then finds Krem, and demands the antidote.
TWIST – Krem reveals that the dart he hit Krypto with wasn’t poisoned. We see the animals Kara found are actually his pets. He says he might be a pirate, but he’s not a monster. He tells his version of events:
FLASHBACK – after hearing Kara talk about Elias’ weapons, he went to the farm and negotiated a deal. When he left, the family was alive. When he returned the next morning, they were dead. They took the weapons anyway, because they are pirates.
BACK TO PRESENT: Krem is killed by Ruthye, using her father’s blade. She has come down to the planet with Lobo using Lobo’s motorcycle. Theyu have reclaimed Lobo’s legs. She gives the blade to Lobo, as promised. Lobo says pleasure doing business and leaves before the pirates find out their leader is dead.
When they do, all hell breaks loose. Kara and Ruthye fight them off, but Kara is troubled. By something.
Kara realises that she couldn’t understand what the healer was saying, that Ruthye translated the words. Ruthye lied to her. Before she can confront Ruthye, she is stabbed by a kryptonite dagger – the twin daggers that Ruthye found on her father’s farm.
Ruthye is the bad guy! She said she didn’t want to have to use the daggers. They were made in case Superman came to try and stop her father selling weapons to crooks and pirates.
The green sun rises. Ruthye leaves Kara to be captured by the pirates, sneaking off on a scout ship.
FLASHBACK – Kara findout out Argo City is dying, that her father used their readation medicine on Kara, meaning they died to save her. He built an escape pod for her using the last of their resource. She refuses to go, so her father knocks her unconscious. She wakes in the pod, with Krypto, as her father launches her into space.
ACT THREE
Kara wakes, a prisoner of the pirates, being blamed for the death of Krem.
She escapes with the help of Lobo, who returns the blade. He says he and Superman are even.
Kara returns to Evely. First, she makes sure Krypto is OK. He is up and about. She asks the healer to watch him until she returns.
Kara goes to confront Ruthye, who finally tells Kara the truth.
FLASHBACK – Ruthye sees her father Elias willingly making a deal with Krem for the weapons. She confronts him, saying he shouldn’t be selling weapons to someone like that. Her father explains they need the money. They get into a fight, and her mother gets in the middle of it. Ruthye accidentally kills her with one of her father’s swords. Ruthye’s father attacks her in a fit of rage, and Ruthye is almost killed, were it not for her brother Emond, who saves her by killing their father. Emond, unable to live with himself, kills himself.
PRESENT DAY – Kara stops fighting and talks with Ruthye, telling her it wasn’t her fault. Ruthye is filled with rage, much like Kara.
CLIMAX – Ruthye then puts the sword to her own throat. Kara talks her down, sharing her own experience on Argo. Ruthye breaks down in tears. Kara has won, not with violence, but with compassion.
RESOLUTION – Kara takes Ruthye somewhere she can get help – some family on the planet. Kara asks if she will be OK. Ruthye says no, but thanks her.
Kara stops drinking. She cleans up her ship. She has a message from Clark. She listens to it, and cries because he is worried for her and Krypto.
Kara returns to Earth. She interrupts Clark and Lois having a romantic meal.
Clark surprises her with a costume just like his. She says she’s not wearing it.
ROLL END CREDITS
POST CREDIT SCENE – Kara, wearing the Supergirl costume, helping people on Earth.