Morak and I are on the same page where the Supergirl movie is concerned, which is that it is pretty good and we can't wait to see the children of Krypton together again, but that as entertainment it genuinely can't get out of its own way. The clearest example of this was a last minute series of A/B tests where they previewed two different cuts of the film, and in the end the studio went with its cut over the director's own. If you make things, though - and maybe even if you don't - there's simply confusion in the piece and a schizoid edit that indicates nobody's vision is on display. Also, there's a lotta rocks.

The excellent run it's based on, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, provides the throughline but the creative team uses the inspirations's beats as a kind of skate park. They do lip tricks off them and catch mad air but they also do a bunch of other stuff that isn't in the comic and also isn't especially necessary. If I had a book like Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, it simply wouldn't occur to me that I knew better or that I should contact Jason Momoa for any reason. He's not even, like, bad! He's pretty funny! I just don't know what he's doing there. It's a road movie. It mighta done better as a series.

James Gunn likes comics. He likes how weird they are and he is not ashamed that they are so dumb they're cool. I'm not trying to insult anybody, I don't think you're dumb; I think that the dynamics are similar to wrestling. Comics are sweet, like an airbrushed unicorn set against a starfield on the side of a van. Paragon and parody. The sins of the film accrue, in my opinion, to its normie paeans and studio meddling. We won't see what she can really do until he's at the wheel.

(CW)TB out.