Supergirl (1984) Retro Review

Hello,

everyone,

and welcome to Movie Goodness,

where we examine life through cinema here on the KB Radio Network.

I am your host,

Kevin Reed,

and today we are going to hope,

wish,

and pray that we get a worthy adaptation of a

DC Comics superhero that has been...

gracing the comic books ever since 1959 and that's supergirl and we have a supergirl movie coming to us from dc studios and warner brothers pictures on june the 26th entitled supergirl and that film is starring millie ocock as

cara zorrell or supergirl uh millie you may know her if you are House of the Dragon

fan she was on that first season a couple of appearances in the second but she's taken over this role of a character that aside from a couple of animated appearances and i will go as far to say the television show that was on the cw which

was pretty good until it wasn't and those adaptations were decent haven't had a proper adaptation on the big screen

but we did get one back in 1984 and it was supergirl and it starred helen slater and that movie i think i was five six years old when i saw it and i was so excited to see another superhero on

the big screen up to that point the only superhero movie i've seen was superman you know that that was it and superman 2 and then god help us we got superman 3

But that was it.

You know,

we didn't have any

MCUs, DCUs,

Arrowverse shows,

and all this other good stuff.

All we had was that.

And,

you know,

it was,

once again,

good until it wasn't.

And you needed something different.

And in 1984,

we got Supergirl.

But we were not going to review it right now.

We're going to wait a few minutes to review it,

but I wanted to give a little history first of Supergirl and give a little backstory of Supergirl in case those of you who are not nerds or geeks like myself,

it may be you didn't follow this character in the comics.

You didn't watch the 1984 film or you didn't watch this character on the Justice League Unlimited or the CW show.

and that was

pretty good i think out of all the cw shows in the arrowverse that was one of the better ones uh until it kind of played itself out like like all of those shows unfortunately but let's

go over a brief history of supergirl and then we're gonna have our retro review of the 1984 superhero film starring Helen

Slater as

Supergirl. And so...

we gotta go back to may of 1959 that was the first appearance in action comics number 252 when we got introduced to the character of supergirl who is the cousin of

superman and the whole concept was created as a female counter counterpart to superman uh carla zorell she shared his power.

She was

basically a carbon copy of superman you know she was vulnerable to kryptonite she had superhuman strength she could fly everything that clark can do she can do and supergirl she played a supporting role in various dc

comics uh back in the day or which included action comics uh superman comics of course and several other comic book series unrelated to superman

but in 1969 there was a turn of the tides if you will supergirl's adventures became the lead feature in adventure comics and she later starred in her own comic book series which debuted back

in 1972 and that ran until 1974 followed by a second monthly comic book series the darling new adventures of supergirl which ran

from 1982 to 1984.

Supergirl was originally introduced in action comics as the cousin of the flagship superhero.

superman in the story supergirl from krypton in most depictions in the comics now a lot of people don't realize that depending on what era you were reading comic books her backstory changes you know origin is different and that's a lot of superheroes in comic books it'll drive you crazy if

you're a

You know,

sometimes they'll change the canon and change the origins and change the power sets and all this other stuff of superheroes.

And you're like,

OK,

where are we?

We're in the alternate universe or something.

But in most depictions,

she is an alien from the planet Krypton,

possessing a multitude of superhuman abilities.

Divide from the rays of the yellow sun,

just like her dear old cousin Clark.

But I think the most monumental moment in Supergirl's history wasn't when she saved the cat out of a tree or saved the universe or helped Clark save the universe or the rest of the Justice League.

No,

it was an event that took place in 1985 and it was called Crisis on Infinite Earths.

This was a huge event in comic books at that time.

dc editors they decided to kill supergirl and that kicked off the uh crisis on infinite earths you can uh search and google the cover art of that and it's superman holding a dead

body of of carl zorrell and i i think the rumor is that is i haven't heard any confirmation i didn't read it anywhere,

but...

a lot of people feel the same way the reason that his supergirl was killed off in 1985 in that uh comic book run was because of that 1984 film i think the movie was so bad that

they decided to just kill that character altogether in all medias and so but it birthed a new age of comic books you know,

because

Crisis on Infinite Earths is one of the most monumental events in all of comics,

whether it was DC or Marvel.

But I digress.

Let's get into the bio of Supergirl or Kara Zor-El,

who is the last survivor of Argo City,

which had survived the explosion of the planet Krypton and had drifted through space.

The city had been covered in this plastic dome for weather monitor.

moderation it was uh it wasn't there to protect them from the explosion it just so happened to happen happen you know and it was created by zorrel who is the younger brother of drorrel the

uh the uh father of superman or kal-el so uh this dome it held a large chunk of landmass under the city and it drifted through space in a general direction of

the solar system and so the land was converted into green kryptonite which is covered with lead and we all know that lead is a weakness to uh superman and supergirl he can't see through lead and can't penetrate that i don't know why lead but hey it

is what it is it's comic books but the lead covered was destroyed by a meteor strike and it forced kara to be sent to earth

And so on Earth,

Kara,

she gained her powers,

which was identical to Superman.

And she adapted this secret identity of

Linda Lee,

who is a resident of an orphanage.

I forgot the name of the orphanage,

but she had concealed her blonde hair.

She had just blonde hair and she had hid it under a brunette wig.

Is she a hooker?

features as supergirl she hid that as well of course and this was at the request of superman because she would have had no problem just being carla zorrell on earth but clark had to break it down to her like whoa they don't rock like that here they

don't they don't do that here you got to keep your identity a secret and so uh later on down the line and she did uh join the

joined the ranks of her cousin,

her famous cousin,

and became a superhero.

And she fought alongside him on many,

many battles.

and several of our own but none were more poignant than the aforementioned 12 part epic limited series uh crisis on infinite earth now this ran from april of 85 to uh march of 86 and

it not just supergirl but it was many deaths uh flash was a huge death in that 12 issue run as well but

She's the one that really kicked it all off.

And she did it.

She sacrificed herself to save Superman and the multiverse.

And so it wasn't like a meaningless death.

It was pretty poignant.

And so when the Superman continuity was rebooted after Crisis on Infinite Earth,

DC editors,

they felt that Superman should be the sole survivor of Krypton,

resulting in

Kara being removed.

So.

Unlike a number of other characters that had died in Crisis on Infinite Earth,

no one remembered Carl Reddine or even existing after that event.

So it was heartbreaking to,

you know,

when you have a character that made the ultimate sacrifice to save the universe,

the multiverse,

and nobody remembers you.

Nobody even knows what you did.

you know and it was it was heartbreak soul crushing even but like every other comic book character ever to die in the pages of comics they always find a way back uh they had uh infinite crisis another event that took place after the

uh crisis on infinite earth it actually served as the sequel to that comic run and many historical events from the multiverse had

were being remembered and diana troy who is wonder girl in the comic she died in crisis as well but she came back she came back but when she came back she

actually remembered cara zorrell and not only remembered her but she remembered the sacrifice that she made and so in doing that i forgot how that all ended but you

that was her way back into the comic books and so uh i think they course corrected after i think a lot of people complained i i don't recall of course there was no internet around that time but uh there

was there was some there was some pretty upset people about that character dying off so they quickly brought her back in infinite crisis but since then uh

Supergirl has been a part of the legion of superheroes.

She got new powers.

She can manifest sunstone crystals from her body.

And she can,

but

I think in the comics,

she can only do that when she's stressed out.

So that's the only time she could do it.

But anyways,

that's a brief little breakdown of Supergirl in the comics.

her history how she came to be and how how important of a character that was in the comic books now moving on to the other adaptations of this character supergirl has appeared on numerous

forms of media rather is animation and uh superman the animated series or dc superhero girls the fourth season of harley

Quinn that's on HBO Max

The New Adventures of Superman she appears on that show really good show if you haven't watched that animated series awesome show also on television in live action form back in 2006

2007 on Smallville

Cora was introduced to the cast

Laura it

vanda voos vanda voot i think her name is beautiful woman she was awesome as carla zorrell uh she was on there of course we know about the the supergirl television show which initially appeared premiered on cbs back in 2015 but

switched over to the cw to be a part of the arrowverse a couple of years later.

And then she had a...

brief and i mean brief cameo in the latest season of peacemaker in a silhouetted

a little cameo uh to kind of retcon the first season of peacemaker and so they just stuck her in there along with superman hulk girl and a couple of other characters from uh the superman film that came out last year but

let's move over to film in film supergirl has went through a lot

to try to make it to the big screen and only only succeeding twice one we haven't even gotten to yet at the time of this recording but before she broke through in 1984 supergirl was actually going to be a part of the third

installment of the superman film franchise superman 3 before they got richard pryor and that i don't know what that villain was but before that came to be which they felt was a

better idea than the one they initially pitched or the producers initially pitched for the third superman film it was going to star christopher reese of course and it was going to be larger in scale and

more cosmic in scale and the villains of that film would have been brainiac and mr mapliculus i could never say his name right the little one you got to say his name or whatever uh

But it was also going to feature

Supergirl. And the original outline featured a father and daughter relationship between Brainiac and Supergirl in a romance between

Superman and Supergirl.

Although the two were cousins in the comics.

And so that was that was immediately thrown out by Warner Brothers.

They were like,

nah,

nah.

call richard pryor let's get him in make that movie uh we're not doing that and so it was still a long rocky road until you got to uh 1984 and we're gonna go over that when we go over that but uh skipping that in august

of 2018 they were developing a film around supergirl it was announced they had got a writer uh

they hired a director uh you may know her name uh reed moreno she directed a few episodes of the handmaid's tale in in a well-known cinematographer in hollywood so she was hired on to direct the film and

it fell apart it was set to go in production in early 2020 and we know what happened in early 2020 so that didn't come to be

and so in february of 2021 uh annie muschietti he was directing the flash and he needed a supergirl they wanted to put supergirl in that film and

sasha kai was cast as supergirl and played cara zorrell and that version of the character i will say that

you say what you will about the movie and i'm not going to argue at all about that movie but i liked sasha kai's uh portrayal of supergirl it was it wasn't it was it fit the tone of that

version of the dc universe you know we were still in the henry cavill ben affleck uh jason momoa as uh aquaman uh universe

So you needed to have that tone of a character.

You couldn't have the bubbly character.

And Sasha Kye brought that hard edge to that character.

And I actually enjoyed it.

I was excited to see her in the role.

I hoped that she would get a chance to,

you know,

lead her own film as the character.

But didn't come to be.

Because in 2024,

once James Gunn took over at DC Studios.

He rebooted the entire universe,

recast everybody,

mostly,

and we got a new Supergirl.

He announced that they hired

Miliaka to portray Kara Zor-El,

or Supergirl,

in a new film that will be released on the 26th of June.

So it'll be right around the corner,

and it's going to be based on Supergirl,

Woman of Tomorrow,

that comic book miniseries that ran from...

2021 to 2022 I just finished it

I promised myself that I was going to read it before the movie came out

And I'm so proud of myself because I never finish anything.

And I finally finished that.

At least I never finished anything on the deadline that I set for myself.

And I did it this time.

And so,

really good comic.

Awesome comic.

Comic book run,

I should say.

The movie,

I can already tell,

the movie is very loosely based.

It is not a beat.

Beat by beat adaptation of warming up tomorrow,

but it is,

it has some of the crust in there.

Some of the,

some of the meat on that bone is in this upcoming film,

but enough about that enough about the history enough about where she came from,

who she went,

all this other foolishness.

Let's jump into what we all came here for.

And that is the 1984.

groundbreaking monumental uh spectacular the superhero film supergirl this film is set after the event of superman 3 which came out the year prior in 19 no pun intended in 1983 and

it stars helen slater as supergirl fade done away peter cook uh mia farrell

is in this thing uh peter o'toole is in this thing mark mcclure who reprises the role of jimmy olsen the only connection to the superman movies uh he he appears in this film as well this

is dc's first attempt at a cinematic universe you know uh marvel wasn't the first to do it

it was dc unfortunately it was bad movies bad movies that were a part of this universe this has to be this has to be one of the worst movies

let alone comic book movies but one of the worst movies you ever want to watch this movie makes absolutely zero sense you have no idea you have no idea and look

I re-watched it for this show and I'm just as lost.

I had I wasted an hour and a half of my life that I can't get back watching this movie because it was no point.

I remember everything from when I watched it back in the 80s.

Nothing changed.

I have the same the same things I forgot from watching it all the way back then.

I forgot already from watching it two days ago.

I just

this movie is the most forgettable movie ever man it's nothing to grab you only a couple of scenes and i mean a couple and one is because popeyes is in it and i i don't know why that's seared in my brain it's

seared in my brain that popeyes was heavily featured in this movie i get it they were a financial backer.

you know product placement i get it but my god popeyes it was weird to me because you know i always thought when i was younger at least around that time i thought that popeyes was just relegated to new orleans i

don't know why but that was in my head i felt that that's what it was and once that movie came out i felt oh that's why Popeyes got famous.

but no,

Popeye's was always famous.

But anyways,

the special effects in this movie,

I understand it was 1984.

I know industrial light magic and all these other effects houses probably didn't exist back then.

Or,

you know,

it wasn't a thing.

CG wasn't a thing.

Visual effects wasn't a thing.

You know,

it was used sparingly.

And then when it was used in certain films,

It was used to kind of hide things or fully lean into the cheese,

fully embrace the absurdity of it all,

you know?

But this was a movie,

for one reason or another,

it thought it was a serious film.

But the actors didn't think that,

with the exception of Helen Slater,

who was perfectly cast.

She beat out a lot of young actors.

actresses around that time.

Debbie Moore,

Demi Moore,

I should say.

Demi Moore,

she was cast in the film,

but not as

Kara. She was cast as Lucy Lane,

but she dropped out right before production to do another film.

I can't remember the name of the film off the top of my head.

But yeah,

she was really,

really good as Supergirl.

I believed her as Kara.

I believed her as Linda Lee.

I believed that she could fly.

it's just she was she was good as the character didn't didn't hate that uh christopher reese was supposed to have a cameo in here as superman but he bowed out he he said thanks but no thanks i've already been in one bad superhero movie i'm done i'm not doing another one and he wasn't going to come back as superman at all uh

unless they backed up the truck to him and that's what they did for

Superman 4 The Quest for Peace and

I don't know.

I hope that money was worth it.

But,

yeah,

aside from Helen Slater,

everybody else understood the assignment.

They was there to get a check.

Faye Dunaway,

I don't know what she was doing in this movie.

I have no earthly idea what her character was.

They told us she was the villain.

They told us that she was this grand sorceress.

Well,

she wasn't.

She just happened upon...

the omega hydron that's what they called the thing and they i don't get it i just don't get her character at all uh uh peter o'toole who was an accomplice act he was i

really believe he was drunk the entire movie that's how he acted that was the character he just looked he was acted drunk the entire movie just goofy and silly and out of place you

it was like he was in a completely different movie and then we get into this confrontation at the end when she's fighting this shadow demon and this where the visual effects just went went bananas now her flying scenes were great i actually enjoyed her flying scenes it was it was it was in comparisons to the superman films around that time which still holds up him flying those

are some awesome scenes love those scenes and you

she had some really good flying scenes as well.

but my God,

this shadow demon thing,

it was just ridiculous.

The whole thing was ridiculous.

The whole plot or if,

or lack thereof was ridiculous.

I mean,

think about the whole,

the whole MacGuffin of the movie is this Omega Hydron,

right?

And she has to retrieve it to return it to her home.

to our gold city otherwise they were gonna die but once she gets to earth because she she was sent there just to retrieve this thing so she gets to earth and evan you forget you completely forget for like

45 minutes of the movie like that that's the reason she's there because she's there just living it up you know being super girl uh falling in love and all this other stuff

while the people in her city including her parents dying because they don't have this device and so that takes a back seat the subplots she's at this all-girls school and all this here that that

dominated the entire movie and i'm like where this movie where it went what happened you know the tone was all over the place it struggled between being a comic book

you know keeping with the comic book mythology and then at the same time you got love potions and witches and it was just disjointed all over the place now i want to preface this i should have said this earlier but the

the the comic book movies that came out around that time which was very sparing didn't take it seriously like you do now you don't have black

Panthers get nominated for best pictures and stuff like that they didn't take movies serious like that the Avengers Endgame and

Batman V Superman or you know just serious comic book where a lot of thought care and passion goes into them you know you didn't have that there so you kind of got to take the good with the bad but this was just so bad there was no passion other than the fact that she could fly

that was that was the whole thing she could fly and the fact that they couldn't couldn't

fuck up some money and get christopher reeves in there for one day of shooting is is a crime against nature to kind of solidify this movie you know give it a little gravitas that it was a major misfire by the producers of this film um

but it wasn't all bad funny enough it wasn't all bad like i said helen slater and this was a film debut this is before the legend of billy jean in films like that.

She this was her first film and she captured everybody there.

I mean,

she mirrored

Christopher Reeves approach to Superman.

I feel this fish out of water story,

her earnestness,

her sincerity,

her trying to fit in.

And it was all there.

And she captured that perfectly when she needed to be powerful.

She was powerful when she needed to be timid.

She was timid.

You know,

she.

She understood the assignment,

and she really did a phenomenal job as Kara Zor-El,

a.k.a.

Supergirl,

in this film.

Jerry Goldsmith's score,

the score is epic.

I mean,

it's a beautiful score.

The romantic themes are spectacular.

He was able to incorporate some of...

John Williams'

original Superman score up in there as well.

It's a score that doesn't deserve to be with this movie.

You know,

the movie doesn't live up to the score.

And that's sad to say.

And now,

I know I poo-pooed on Faye Dunaway,

but she was fun in the movie.

She was so over the top,

so campy,

and she chewed up every scene she was in.

And I believe it was on purpose.

it had to be on purpose she was just she was just living it up and she didn't care she she did not put in this mustache trolling well she's female but you know your typical comic book villain this was an over-the-top witch who who

just who just wanted world domination and for reasons we don't know because it was never established but that's not faye dunaway's fault i think it's the uh

filmmakers fault screenwriters and whatnot who did not develop this character at all but it was fun watching her in the role overall it's a charming movie you

know it's deeply flawed and i don't know if it's a cult status you know you you don't hear nobody talk about supergirl being a cult classic but

it is a charming little movie you know nostalgic wise you can look back if you love

80s cheese because there's no cheese like

80s cheese this is a perfect perfect little uh throwback film for you you know the the jump cuts the plot holes that it's all there for you it's a nostalgia showcase because it is truly dated as all get out you you the

when you pop this in you know this is 1984 that it is no there's no debating like man this came out in the 90s or the late 80s or no it came out in 1984 it feels like 1984 through and through but

believe it or not there's actually a director's cut of this movie that a lot of Trader Online says that it fixed some...

of the problems some of the pacing issues uh argo city is flushed out a little bit more you know you go deeper into that uh it it gives a little more story behind uh selena the

witch fade character uh i've never seen it don't care to see it but uh there's some there's supposed to be

uh uh ultimate edition of this movie somewhere uh that that dives deeper into the story but i i don't think it helped it is nothing that could help this movie i don't care who cut it and who

who uh put put some deleted scenes in here or whatever whatever at the end of the day supergirl from 1984 is a nostalgia trip it is a cheesy 80s

superhero film that is good to put on if if anything just to sit there and laugh

for an hour and a half i give supergirl from 1984 a letter grade of a d plus yeah it's it's not the worst comic book movie i've ever seen but it's definitely one of them it's

it's oh man what can i what can i give the worst batman batman and robin is still the one of the worst movies i ever saw i can't

I'm sorry,

I can't excuse that movie.

That movie cut deep.

So it's something to behold.

And

I don't think Supergirl is that bad.

But it's bad.

It's just not that bad.

But that's my humble opinion.

I would like to know,

what did you think of Supergirl from 1984?

Do you remember watching this movie?

Do you even know this movie exists?

Because 1984 was a long time ago.

Unfortunately,

I was I was unfortunately,

I remember going in the theater and see it.

So that just lets you know that

I am old,

but it is hard to find this movie.

At least it was for me.

But I want to know,

do you remember it?

Did you ever enjoy it?

Or are you looking forward to this new adaptation of Supergirl that stars

Millie Ocock and is directed by

Craig Gillespie?

who's a really good director.

I'm excited for that.

I really am,

but I want to know from you.

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if you're listening on apple podcast spotify iheart radio wherever you are currently listening to movie goodness here on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me for this retro review of

supergirl 1984 i wonder if anybody here if you're still here probably clicked on it you saw supergirl in review in the same statement and you thought it was the new one.

I just...

did you get shamed or are you mad at me right now read the thing read the whole thing supergirl from 1984 it's the retro review we'll have that supergirl from 19 uh from 2026 that

review will be up as soon as that movie comes out on the 26th i want you all to know that i love you continue to love everyone and until we speak again you all be blessed

Supergirl (1984) Retro Review

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