Kara Zor-El comes to Brookings Cinema 8, and yes, she brought the dog

There's a particular pleasure in a summer where you don't have to drive to Sioux Falls to catch the big one. This week it's Brookings Cinema 8 doing the honors, with “Supergirl” settling into the local screens right on its June 26 release date. For a town that plans its weekends around what's actually playing six blocks from Main Avenue rather than what's playing ninety minutes east, that matters more than it might elsewhere. And with $5 tickets on Tuesdays, this is the rare tentpole movie where a family of four doesn't need to take out a small loan to see it twice.

The real story here isn't really about capes, though. It's about a studio trying to prove something. This is only the second film out of the rebooted DC Universe under James Gunn and Peter Safran, following last year's Superman relaunch, and the pressure on it is enormous in a way that has nothing to do with Kara Zor-El herself. DC has spent the better part of two decades lurching between tones, directors, and continuities, and Gunn's whole pitch to audiences has been “trust the plan this time.” A Supergirl movie, especially one handing the reins to Craig Gillespie, a director better known for character-driven oddities like “I, Tonya” than cosmic spectacle, and a script from Ana Nogueira, a name mostly unfamiliar to blockbuster audiences, is a genuine bet that this new DCU can build out its bench, not just prop up its headliner. Milly Alcock, plucked from “House of the Dragon” rather than from an established superhero résumé, is very much part of that bet too. Whether Brookings audiences walk out convinced the DCU has its footing says something about whether this whole rebuild is working, not just whether one movie is fun.

As for what actually happens on screen, the premise is leaner and stranger than you'd expect from a cosmic superhero picture. Kara isn't defending Earth from an alien invasion or squaring off with a mirror-universe version of herself. She's chasing down whoever hurt her dog, Krypto, and that manhunt takes her clear across the galaxy. It's a small, almost personal engine for a story with a large supporting cast that includes Matthias Schoenaerts, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, and, notably, David Corenswet and Jason Momoa slotting in from elsewhere in the DCU. Don't expect a plot summary beyond that here. Half the fun of these things is not knowing exactly where the road trip ends.

Here's where I have to be straight with you: the numbers on this one aren't a slam dunk. IMDb currently has “Supergirl” sitting at 6.1 out of 10, which is the kind of score that tells you a movie has real defenders and real detractors, but isn't sweeping anybody off their feet. That's not a disaster, but it's also not the kind of number that lets me tell you to clear your Saturday without qualification. A 6.1 usually means solid craft undercut by something, pacing that drags in the middle third, a villain who doesn't quite land, a tone that can't decide if it wants to be a road movie or a space opera.

Having sat with it, I think that's roughly right. Alcock is genuinely good, she brings warmth and a slightly feral edge to Kara that separates her from the Superman mold, and the Krypto material works better than it has any right to, tapping into something simple and true about grief and loyalty. But the film stretches that simple engine further than it comfortably goes, and some of the galaxy-hopping detours feel like padding rather than momentum. Momoa and Corenswet's appearances will delight DCU completists and mildly distract everyone else. This is a movie worth seeing, especially on a big screen with Brookings Cinema 8's expanded legroom making the two-hour-plus runtime easier on the knees, but it's a matinee or Tuesday-discount watch rather than a full-price date-night must.

If you love Alcock already, or you're invested in whether Gunn's DCU experiment holds together, go. If you're on the fence, the $5 Tuesday is basically built for you.

Facts verified as of September 9, 2026.