Director Vincent Tran has made a fan film of popular DC character Supergirl. Unfortunately, the short is a letdown. Actress Sarah McCreanor gives us a decent interpretation of our superheroine but she just doesn’t quite fit the cape. The character of Kara AKA Supergirl just isn’t fleshed out enough. They call her Earth’s next hero but all she does is get told to go to Earth, interrogated by a CIA agent in a too-dark room with what looks like car headlights surrounding them, and then meets another character who, just with his looks, has somehow convinced our heroine to cooperate with the government and fight alongside our heroic cameo. Just because we as an audience know who a certain character might be, doesn’t mean the actual characters in the story automatically do too. You can’t treat your characters like the audience.
I can ignore small budget restraints when it comes to short films, especially fan ones, but this is all very basic and far from creative. There is no detail or strong enough connection to its comic core. It just feels like a completely separate world from Superman aside from key words thrown our way like ‘Krypton’ and ‘Kal-El’. Not that our lead can even say her home planet correctly. The dialogue all seems so forced and unhappy, crawling out of the pained mouths of every actors involved. And the story just isn’t interesting enough. It just hops all over the place like it knows it won’t be given a chance to tell a full, involving story.
Overall, I admire and appreciate that a film like this is conceived. That someone is inspired to create a live-action universe of a popular comic character for the world to enjoy. I just can’t get down with the lack of care, creativity, and joy that this film possesses. So much wonderful material to pull from and yet somehow finding a way to make complex and interesting characters into dull and inconsistent ones in the brief span of 9.5 minutes. That’s a talent right there.
GIRL OF STEEL:[1=5]
About GIRL OF STEEL
Synopsis: A young Kryptonian girl learns of her destiny on Earth and must prepare herself for an oncoming alien invasion.
Directors: Vincent Tran
Writers: Vincent Tran
Stars: Sarah McCreanor
Rated: NR
Runtime: 9 minutes and 41 seconds
PREMIERING AT PHOENIX COMICON JUNE 7th, 2014
