Another look at SUPERGIRL

[JulianPerez]

There was a SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE skit which was a spoof of car commercials, featuring a pair of engineering teams designing a car. One team was to make the best car in the world, the other, the worst, and they combined both the designs together into a single vehicle. "Acura. The best car in the world. Or is it the worst?"

That's what SUPERGIRL feels like. It's as if there were two Supergirl movies: one, the best, the other, the worst, and they were spliced together into one movie. This is also known as "THE 13TH WARRIOR Syndrome."

There's enough good stuff in here to make the movie worth buying if you can get it cheap, especially the 135 minute extended version. A quick question to determine if this movie is right for you: did you enjoy - even ironically - the Dolph Lundgren version of MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE? If yes, you'll probably like SUPERGIRL too. If no, take a pass on this one.

SUPERGIRL has no problem feeling like a different and distinct movie from SUPERMAN. They NAILED how different Supergirl's world is when they had Kara wake up by a gentle forest creature nuzzling her while she slept in a forest - a sort of "Snow White" esque detail that defines Supergirl's fundamental ability to be unconditionally loved by the world. There were also witches, practice kissing in the mirror, and magic pieces of jewelry that glow. The only reason they didn't throw in a Unicorn is because they probably ran out of budget. Supergirl even FLIES differently from Superman; her arms undulate in a way that is a cross between figure skating and a jellyfish's mating dance.

Everyone in SUPERGIRL had a definite personality. The much-maligned gardner that attempts to win Supergirl's affection was actually a rather likeable working class Joe. Even characters that didn't appear in the movie were well-defined. The Headmaster's line about "Your sister, Lucy, the one that's always calling me and bothering me..." shows more of Lois's personality than was done in the entirety of SUPERMAN IV.

If I were the director, though, I'd want my money back for Peter O'Toole, nominated for a Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor in this movie, where he rambles and mumbles things while visibly drunk. What is it about Super movies that drive actors to drink?

Whatever happened to Helen Slater? Now that's what I call perfect casting. She was so cute that she touched even my withered black heart. I know she guest starred as Jerry Seinfeld's girlfriend in a few episodes of that show, which featured Supergirl herself, and the biggest Superman fan in the universe liplocking. I absolutely refuse to believe that this was a coincidence. This is like when Elvis fan Nick Cage married Lisa Marie Presley - he brought home the ultimate piece of Elvis memorabilia!

It's strange to note that Marc MacClure is the only actor to be in all four SUPERMAN movies and SUPERGIRL.

Also, does the electric shadow monster that attacks Supergirl's dormitory remind anybody else of the Id monster from FORBIDDEN PLANET? From the weird footprint shape all the way down to the fact that it was made visible by electricity.

That is not to say that Supergirl didn't have flaws. An example of SUPERGIRL's sparkling dialogue:

GARDNER: "What happened?"
SUPERGIRL: "You got hit on the head by a coconut."
GARDNER: "Huh?" [/list]

Also, product placement was way, way over the top. Supergirl eats prominently at POPEYE'S chicken, and during a fight with a monster crashes into an A&W cola machine, the root beer company's logo prominently displayed. In his director commentary for the first movie, Dick Donner all but fesses up to the product placement in his Superman picture, including the long slow pan in the Kent farm whose purpose seems to be to show off a bright yellow box of Cheerios. "Cheerios paid quite a bit for this shot, it really helped while we were making this movie strapped for cash."

It's almost as if the box itself was saying, "hey, listen, you might want to pan off me here...I'm just a box of cereal."[/b]

[Klar Ken T5477]

Supergirl flying sequences are better technically than Superman's because the back plates were shot with much sharper prime lenses  than the zoom leneses on Sman.  Zooms are a series of telescoping lenses which reduce the sharpness of an image.  

And who doesnt love Supergirl's aerial ballet?  Jerry Goldmsith's music is great and even Mike Ploog's storyboards on the dvd are tops!

Heck - I even bought a page of Gray Morrow's art from the comic tie in.  Too bad the comic itself's reproduction was atrocious and didnt do Gray's marvellous art justice.  For the record, I got the page where P'Ot and Kara are trapped in the Phantom Zone.

[Super Monkey]

Whatever happened to Helen Slater?

Helen Slater...

Although "Supergirl" received mixed reviews, most critics were impressed with Helen's abilities. In fact, the critics' consensus was that she did a better job at keeping a secret identity (a mousy schoolgirl) than Reeve did as Clark Kent. In her next film she was cast as a modern-day Joan of Arc in The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) with Yeardley Smith and Peter Coyote. The film, though not particularly successful, has managed to attract a somewhat cult following. She next appeared in one of her best-received roles, that of the female half of the bumbling husband-and-wife team that kidnaps Bette Midler in the comic blockbuster Ruthless People (1986), and scored again in the hit The Secret of My Succe$s (1987). Both roles helped to cement her status as an actress of note. Next, she and friend Melanie Mayron starred in the feminist comedy Sticky Fingers (1988), a critical but not financial success. It was in this film and her next, Happy Together (1989/I), that she was able to prove that she could do comedy as well as drama. She went on to do more feature films such as City Slickers (1991), A House in the Hills (1993) and Lassie (1994), before making regular appearances on television.


recent work:

"The New Adventures of Old Christine"
    - Teach Your Children Well (2006) TV Episode .... Liz

Jane Doe: The Harder They Fall (2006) (TV) .... Stella Andre
"Grey's Anatomy"

Seeing Other People (2004) .... Penelope
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"

    - Families (2004) TV Episode .... Susan Coyle
"Boston Public"

    - Chapter Seventy-Four (2003) TV Episode .... Mrs. McNeal
"Will & Grace"

All of the above was taken from here http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000644/

[Klar Ken T5477]

Helen's also been promoting her music career as I discoevered when I was producing the film Shadow:Dead Riot.  I had proposed her for the role of Women's prison warden, Lindsay Danvers.

Helen's official site:
http://www.helenslater.com/

[Permanus]

I've never seen the film, atcherly, though I have a sort of guilty desire to.
 
Oddly enough, when I was looking it up on the Internet Movie Database, I also came across a 1971 German TV film called Supergirl – Das Mädchen von den Sternen (Supergirl, the Girl from the Stars), but they don't give a plot synopsis or anything. I see it features Billy Kearns as himself, and also Rainer Werner Fassbinder as "man at window" (at least, that's what I think it means). Now what in the name of Argo can all that be about?

[dto]

Helen's still as "Super" as ever -- see her website at:

http://www.helenslater.com/

She was writing and performing songs back in high school (the prestigious New York High School of the Performing Arts -- Helen even created a musical there), and she's recently released two CDs.  Her site is mainly devoted to marketing these recordings.

As for the "Supergirl" movie, it ironically owes its existence AND demise to the wretched "Superman III".  After fulfilling his contract obligations, Christopher Reeve was determined not to make another Superman movie.  (He later relented because he liked the anti-nuclear theme of "Superman IV", but he regretted his reversal afterwards.)  But Reeve's departure put the Salkinds in a fix.  How do you continue the franchise when the actor who portrays your most asset hangs up the cape?  

But the Salkinds had ALL the Superman-related rights -- they could have made a movie featuring Krypto, Streaky, Comet and Beppo if they wanted to!  (So long as they didn't mention "Legion of Super-Pets", which would be under a different DC licensing package.)  Thus, the Salkinds decided to make "Supergirl", hoping that Christopher Reeve would at least make a cameo as Kara's cousin to help support this movie.

But Reeve didn't.  And due to "Superman III" performing so badly at the box office, production of "Supergirl" was strapped for cash -- and it showed in spots.  Furthermore, critics who jeered "Superman III" were impatiently waiting to blast "Supergirl".  Why the Salkinds still doggedly continued their tired and extravagant formula of hiring big name actors for cameos (did we REALLY need Mia Farrow as Kara's mom?) or truly hokey roles (Faye Dunaway and Peter O'Toole absolutely sank this film), I simply cannot explain.

And then there was DC Comics, who in the meantime decided that Supergirl would be killed in "Crisis on Infinite Earths".  Now, it wasn't the first time that a movie character varied considerably from the original print version (the Salkinds later produced a very successful "Superboy" television series, long after the Byrne reboot held that Superboy NEVER EXISTED), but it certainly didn't help when the "Supergirl" comic book was suddenly cancelled in the Spring of 1984, and rumors of Kara's demise were circulating by the time the movie belatedly arrived that Thanksgiving weekend.  Perhaps someone at DC tipped off Warner Brothers (both companies are part of the Time-Warner media empire), because Warner Brothers declined to distribute the movie for the planned summer release, and then-new Tri-Star lacked the resources to adequately publicize the film.

So for a movie that really shouldn't have been made AT ALL had the Salkinds didn't blotch the job on their previous Superman films, and with so many factors working against its creation and release, it's remarkable how good "Supergirl" really is, DESPITE the less-than-stellar performance of the supporting cast.  And it's all due to Helen Slater.  

As for the legacy of the "Supergirl" movie, consider that the general public considers the Helen Slater costume as THE definative Supergirl "look" even though the Earth-1 Kara Zor-El never actually wore that particular uniform!  Matrix/Linda Danvers adopted a modified version, and it's now seen as the "classic Supergirl" appearance.  It will be a long time before the current Kara's costume will be so recognized -- while popular in its own right, the animated Kara-in-Ze's white t-shirt and clunky boots was never as universally accepted.

[JulianPerez]

Speaking of movie tie-ins, and not to get on a tangent, but some of the absolute best have to include the Marvel Comics LAST STARFIGHTER. Didn't the comic book version of 1941 have early George Perez art?

She went on to do more feature films such as City Slickers (1991), A House in the Hills (1993) and Lassie (1994), before making regular appearances on television.

Wasn't the casting for CITY SLICKERS fantastic? Nevermind Jack Palance having a role he was born to play. Wasn't that a cameo by the real-life actress that does the voice of Lisa Simpson?

I did know about her LAW AND ORDER appearances - it was weird, seeing Supergirl as a crazy killer nanny.

I've never seen the film, atcherly, though I have a sort of guilty desire to.

Remember the scientific test that will determine if you will like SUPERGIRL? If you liked MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, you will like SUPERGIRL, and vice-versa.

As for the "Supergirl" movie, it ironically owes its existence AND demise to the wretched "Superman III". After fulfilling his contract obligations, Christopher Reeve was determined not to make another Superman movie. (He later relented because he liked the anti-nuclear theme of "Superman IV", but he regretted his reversal afterwards.)

I was under the impression that part of the reason that Chris Reeves decided to do SUPERMAN IV was because it was one of the ways for Warner Brothers to fund his pet project film.

And then there was DC Comics, who in the meantime decided that Supergirl would be killed in "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Now, it wasn't the first time that a movie character varied considerably from the original print version (the Salkinds later produced a very successful "Superboy" television series, long after the Byrne reboot held that Superboy NEVER EXISTED), but it certainly didn't help when the "Supergirl" comic book was suddenly cancelled in the Spring of 1984, and rumors of Kara's demise were circulating by the time the movie belatedly arrived that Thanksgiving weekend. Perhaps someone at DC tipped off Warner Brothers (both companies are part of the Time-Warner media empire), because Warner Brothers declined to distribute the movie for the planned summer release, and then-new Tri-Star lacked the resources to adequately publicize the film.

Thanks for the summary.

Could someone tell me the DEFINITIVE reason that DC decided to kill off SUPERGIRL, though?

I read in a Legion APA in the early nineties that part of the reason the decision was made to kill Supergirl was because her movie didn't make any money. Here, however, I read that the movie and the killing were decided on at the same time. Marv Wolfman insists it is because he felt that Supergirl was damaging to Superman and it was his idea, but there have been contradictions on whose idea it really was.

[dto]

JulianPerez, I asked Marv Wolfman at a book signing, and he flatly denied that the movie had ANY effect on Supergirl's demise.  They were aware that a "Supergirl" movie was in development (and DC altered Kara's last costume to match the later-abandoned movie preproduction outfit), but Supergirl's fate was already long sealed.  

It was already known that the subsequent Bryne reboot would eliminate all Kryptonians except Superman, the "Sole Survivor".  So Supergirl simply HAD to die, and thus she was on the top of the Crisis "hit parade" from Day One.  In contrast, Marv admitted to me that he was surprised when DC asked him to kill off Barry Allen -- that casualty was rather unexpected.

According to Marv, while Supergirl was a familiar and much-beloved character, many of her most ardent fans fondly remembered her Action Comics days -- nearly a quarter century before the Crisis.  These older fans weren't the demographics that DC was aiming for at the time, while the younger readers who bought more comics weren't so strongly attached to Supergirl.  (And thanks to DC producing some truly wretched Supergirl stories, Kara was seen as being unable to carry her own title.)

Also, had "Supergirl" proved to be an unlikely hit, Marv Wolfman theorized that DC would have simply created another Supergirl, minus the Krypton connection.  And of course, DC did exactly that with Matrix.