Supergirl Reviews Reveal a Major DCU Issue James Gunn Will Need To Address

The reviews are in for DC Studios‘ second DC Universe movie, Supergirl, and they’re not looking good. In fact, a glaring issue has been spotted that James Gunn will need to address immediately if he wants this shared universe to last.

James Gunn’s voice is all over Supergirl… and that’s not good

At the time of writing, with 90 reviews counted, Supergirl is “rotten” on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with a critics’ score of 59%. While a lot of criticism seems to be going to the screenplay, there are also quite a few reviews that note that Supergirl feels like an inferior James Gunn movie.

Independent‘s Clarisse Loughrey wrote that Supergirl felt like it was forced to “keep things as distinctly Gunn-esque as possible,” which robbed the superhero “the chance to speak with her own voice.”

Shakyl Lambert voiced a similar complaint, writing for CGMagazine that the movie’s “biggest problem is that [director] Craig Gillespie does not have a particularly distinctive voice. His persistent reliance on needle drops, which seem to arrive every few minutes, often makes the film feel like a lesser Guardians of the Galaxy.”

When Gunn was first hyping up the DCU back in 2023, he made it clear that the tone would shift from project to project to “reflect the unique sensibilities of the filmmakers involved.” However, four projects in, the only tone fans have seen so far is from the studio head himself. Creature Commandos, Peacemaker, and Superman were all written by Gunn, and in the latter two cases, also directed by him.

There was already concern from some fans, myself included, that the DCU was feeling too Gunn-heavy, which is why Supergirl felt like a nice breather ahead of Man of Tomorrow. It’s clear now, based on the reviews, that Gunn likely played a bigger role in the minutiae of Supergirl’s whole production process than a studio head would normally have, likely due to the character’s close relationship with Superman.

But that’s not necessarily the problem. Kevin Feige certainly steers a tight ship over at Marvel, so why shouldn’t Gunn with DC? The real issue is that Gunn seems to be forcing his voice and tone onto almost every project, a unique creative style that works best when used sparingly.

What made the Guardians of the Galaxy so special is that they were unlike any other character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the time of their debut. The humor felt fresh and the needle drops served a purpose to the story. The Guardians were the perfect side dish to the Avengers’ main course.

However, “a little goes a long way,” as the saying goes. When every project begins to feel the same, that’s when you start losing what made it special in the first place. Hopefully, Gunn won’t ignore these reviews and actually take the criticism to heart, step back, and let the other filmmakers’ voices shine through. The last thing the DCU needs is for every project to feel like a rip-off of Guardians of the Galaxy.

It does look like the next two DCU projects, Clayface and Lanterns, will be offering fans something not Gunn-like at all, with an R-rated body horror movie and a True Detective-inspired murder mystery. So long as those projects stay true to those descriptions and don’t feature any of Gunn’s trademark humor and needle drops, then it might not be over for the DCU just yet.

I still have trust in Gunn, but hopefully Supergirl ends up being the wakeup call he needs to realize the DCU needs more distinct creator-driven projects like Clayface and Lanterns and less Guardians of the Galaxy reduxes.

Originally written by Lee Freitag for SuperHeroHype

Source: Comingsoon.net