The modern superhero genre really kicked off in 2002 with Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man,” which incorporated heavy CGI use to help Toby Maguire’s Peter Parker swing wildly around New York City. In 2008, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Jon Favreau’s Iron-Man brought new global attention to the genre. And for the next 11 years or so, superhero movies absolutely dominated at the box office. The MCU brought audiences in droves, even for seemingly minor characters, like Ant-Man or the Guardians of the Galaxy.
But we’re in a bit of a post-boom time now. Since the release of Avengers: Endgame in 2019, there have been more misses than hits in the superhero genre. Yes, Spider-Man movies always seem to do well, and a new Avengers movie later this year will lately hit it big. But movies like The Flash, Kraven the Hunter, and Captain America: Brave New World have failed to ignite in the way these sorts of movies were just 10 or 15 years ago. Now we have another superhero entry to add to the list of flops: the Warner Brothers film Supergirl. Just the second movie in James Gunn’s new DC Universe, the film from director Craig Gillespie has nowhere to go and wastes a solid performance from lead Milly Alcock.
Supergirl wants to be a fun intergalactic extravaganza, drawing on Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films and elements of Star Wars, **but it’s executed in a way that ultimately just feels like something audiences have seen over and over again. The tension never hits, the plot follows a formula full of narrative convenience, and the third-act optimism feels exceptionally 2014-coded.
The superhero genre was the main driver at the US box office for over a decade, but that window seems to be closing. The genre just feels too picked over, and audiences are ready to move on.
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