Supergirl |
  • UK / USA • 1984 • 124m •   • Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc. • Starring: Faye Dunaway, Helen Slater, Peter O'Toole, Hart Bochner, Mia Farrow, Brenda Vaccaro, Peter Cook, Simon Ward, Marc McClure, Maureen Teefy, David Healy, Sandra Dickinson, Robyn Mandell. • Music by: Jerry Goldsmith.      Supergirl heads to earth to recover the Omegaheadron, which is the power source for her home world. The Omegaheadron falls into the hands of a second rate witch named Selena who uses it to try to take over the world. A silly subplot rears its ugly head when Selena uses a spell to make a gardener fall in love with her but he instead falls for Supergirl who now goes by the name of Linda Lee. Supergirl must now stop Selena and save the gardener.
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As I was reading through the comments of others about this movie I found that apparently international audiences got treated to a longer version of Supergirl than people in the States with scenes left in that made the movie make more sense than the cut down version US citizens were treated to. Being an Australian I imagine I was treated to the longer version and have no idea what the cut down version was like so don't really know how much the plot was screwed with. One thing I do know is that a lot of the time there are little details and throwaway lines in movies that explain certain aspects of a movie that viewers miss and then are confused later by an apparent lack of logic or structure in a movie. Firstly I should say that I don't think it should be necessary for everything to be explained in a movie so long as the writerproducers have their own internal logic when working on it so that the plot doesn't contradict itself. The writer knows why someone's skin is green but doesn't feel the need to explain it to the viewer as it doesn't really matter to the story at hand. Secondly I believe that some things are implied in movies without being stated outright and thirdly that some things can be explained by logical deduction using the evidence the movie has presented to us.
A lot of commenters had questions about Argo City, Supergirl emerging from a lake - one commenter believing that Argo City was in the lake and about the Omegahedron. For those commenters I'll attempt to explain these things as best I can based on my interpretations of the movie.
Although I never really read the Supergirl comics I seem to recall that she was Kara Zor-El and her father was the brother of Jor-El, Superman's biological father. Kara and her family lived in a city on the planet Krypton called Argo City. Somehow the city managed to survive the destruction of Krypton but apparently there was kryptonite beneath the city which killed the inhabitants over time until Kara's father sent her in a rocket to earth as Argo City exploded behind her. Some of the mythology was obviously changed for the movie. One thing we do know about the Krypton of the Silver age comics was that the Kryptonians were a highly intelligent and technologically advanced, peaceful society. My memory is a little vague but I believe it was mentioned in the movie that Peter O'Tooles character Zaltar was one of the saviours of Argo City, transporting it into the alternate dimension of Inner Space using the power of the Omegahedron which he had a part in constructing to escape the destruction of Krypton. Inner Space is not a friendly place and it is only the power of the Omegahedron the protects the inhabitants of Argo City.
What exactly is Inner Space? Well my understanding of it was that it was a realm in some ways like Hyperspace that is connected to all points in normal space. Meaning that someone with the power, technology and knowhow could use travel through Inner Space to get anywhere in the universe virtually instantaneously. It is my belief that there was some reason that all the inhabitants of Argo City couldn't escape. Kara managed to leave you might say but it seemed to me that the vessel she used to leave was the only one they had and powerful as the Omegahedron was it was not powerful enough to transport all of Argo City's inhabitants to a more hospitable realm or perhaps the inhabitants of Argo City did not have the know-how to use it for that purpose. I also seem to recall that most considered the journey from Inner Space to Outer Space to be dangerous and too risky. The only other way out of Argo City was banishment to the Phantom Zone which most considered a punishment worse than death. Zaltar was sent there as punishment for taking the Omegahedron without permission and allowing Kara to use it and accidentally lose it.
Now about the Omegahedron. How many remember Clarke's law that "any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic". It is entirely conceivable that a superstitious woman from earth would see the Omegahedron as a magical power source rather than an advanced alien piece of technology. It is also entirely possible that there were some aspects of magic to the Omegahedron as magic exists in the Superman and Supergirl comics and is their only weakness apart from Kryptonite. Perhaps it might be better to think of Faye Dunaway's character as a wannabe sorceress who was to lazy and incompetent to succeed when a gift from the gods fell in her lap - the Omegahedron. While being for the most part incompetent she had sufficient ability to corrupt the Omegahedron with magic. Obviously it resisted her will and wouldn't obey her fully until she was given the magic rattle or whatever it was called by her sometime paramour Nigel. Why when Serena had nearly attained ultimate power did she set up shop in the hokey little town she lived in? Perhaps because it didn't occur to her to set up shop in Washington, DC or wherever most people think is the center of power. Her power had nothing to do with where she was. Once she had the Omegahedron in her grasp she was power incarnate and had no need to move to Washington as a symbol of her power. Plus it was the town she grew up in and perhaps she wanted the comfort of home.
Finally Supergirl coming from the lake. One of the problems with movies is that producers often film scenes in a manner that looks good but has little internal logic. Nevertheless even if that was their intent given my perceived view that Inner Space is connected to all points in Outer Space then a person could conceivably emerge from Inner Space at any point in space and Supergirl just happened to emerge in the lake. That probably wasn't why the producers did it but it makes sense according to everything I've seen.
On a last note I'd like to say I fell a little in love with Helen Slater's portrayal of KaraLindaSupergirl. In some ways I think the movie was about her growing up from a sweet, gentle and naive girl to a strong, caring, compassionate woman with a will of iron who still managed to hold on to some of that gentleness and sweetness. When Helen was playing the strong side of Supergirl's character I really saw it like this is Supergirl, this is who Supergirl is. You might not have liked the character Helen portrayed thinking she was too wimpy or somesuch but you cannot in fairness accuse Helen of poor acting. I think she did a great job and that the other actors were brilliant as well. If some bits were corny in your view just think of Otis from the Superman movies. There was a lot of corny comedy in the first Superman movie which in some ways detracted from it. Comedy has a place in every drama or action movie but in some parts of Superman I thought it was overdone.
Lastly I'd like to say that not one single version of Supergirl has been released on DVD here in Australia but after readin about the two-disc set I seriously hope that it is released here so that I can get my grubby paws on it. Extra footage is always good even when it's crap.
Review by Ahriman from the Internet Movie Database.
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