Supergirl

Anyhoo, let's get on with the show...

In the mood to complete my viewing of the entire Salkind-funded Super-films, I finally decided to give 'Supergirl' a look. After watching it twice (once by itself and once with director commentary), I found it a fair-to-middling entry in the canon. It didn't quite stack up to Supes 1 or 2, but it wasn't quite as silly as Supes 3 or 4. Like most mid-quality comic-book-based flicks it has the usual case of overacting by most of the cast-- especially Faye Dunaway as the show's big heavy, and Peter York as the big heavy's scorned love interest. Fortunately, the overacting is cheesily counterbalanced by the UNDERacting of Helen Slater in the title role, and the just plain dopiness of our heroine's love interest played by Hart Bochner. Helping provide a link to the 'Superman' franchise is Marc McClure doin' his overly-cheerful aw-shucks routine as Daily Planet photog Jimmy Olsen. And even though it never quite reaches the level of hilarity that Gene Hackman and Ned Beatty attained in the original 'Superman', the quirky interplay between Dunaway's character and her sidekick (Brenda Vaccaro) helps add a decent level of levity to the whole affair.

As you'd expect, there's plenty of special & visual FX thrown about, many of which haven't aged all that well. Some of the stuff still looks pretty good though, including most of the Supergirl flying sequences with the painted-out harness wires. Most of the bluescreen stuff, however, isn't quite as convincing. Especially glaring is one scene featuring three transitions in one "pan" that weren't aligned all that well. BTW if you listen to the commentary track featuring director Jeannot Szwarc while watching the movie, you can usually tell which effects weren't quite up to snuff in his estimation when he brings up how much better a particular shot would've turned out using modern CGI effects.

The director commentary track also includes the usual bits of info regarding the movie's production, as well as Szwarc's thoughts on the thespian capabilities of various cat members, and a few somewhat amusing anecdotes thrown in for good measure. But for me the most interesting part of this track was the revelation that the producers wanted further links to the 'Superman' movies in the form of brief appearances by Christopher Reeve as Superman and (rumored) Margot 'Lois Lane' Kidder. Reeve apparently had voiced interest in being involved but eventually decided against it, which forced the film's crew to write and produce a new opening act. Them's the breaks in show biz...

Also included with this edition of the DVD are the usual array of TV spots, theatrical trailers, and an hour-long documentary on the making of the movie. This doc covers the usual "making-of" ground such as how the whole project got started, the casting, and special effects. Unfortunately I didn't find much of interest here, save for the building of the small Midwest town set in the middle of a clearing somewhere in rural England for the "out-of-control backhoe digger" sequence. I tell ya, it was almost a shame to watch the rampaging machine trash half the town in the movie after seeing how much effort the set builders put into making it look like an authentic slice of Americana. Eh, they were just gonna tear it all down after filming was finished, anyway...

Bottom line: while not exactly a high point in the annals of comic-book celluloid, 'Supergirl' ain't a complete waste. There's enough campiness thrown about to keep the average fan of cheeseball cinema reasonably entertained. It's worth at least a rental, if for nothing more than to get the curiosity outta yer system...

'Late