bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes) (11/28/84)
- - - mod.movies - - - - - - Volume 1, Issue 9 - - -
"Supergirl"
reviewed by Peter Reiher
The Salkinds seem intent on becoming the most seasonal of movie
producers. They're bring us "Santa Claus" for the Christmas of 85, and
they're offering us a turkey for this Thanksgiving. (It's an old joke,
but I couldn't resist.) "Supergirl" isn't a very good movie. I think
the Salkinds realized this, because they haven't spent much money on
building it up. Maybe it will make its money back, but probably
"Supergirl" signals the end of the Superman movies. If this film and
"Superman III" are the best ideas anyone can come up with, it's just as
well.
Supergirl (Helen Slater) lives in a city saved from the des-
truction of Krypton. The filmmakers don't bother explaining how this
happened, and it's been a long time since I read comics, so you'll have
to go to net.comics to find out. (If you must, please do. I have
absolutely no interest in finding out, myself.) At any rate, the
city is kept going by a couple of power sources known as octahedrons.
Due to carelessness, Kara (that's Supergirl's Kryptonian name) loses
one. It lands on earth, in the hands of Faye Dunaway, a witch with
dreams of world domination which the octahedron can fulfill. Kara
goes to Earth to retrieve the octahedron, as the city cannot long
survive without it.
For obscure reasons, she disguises herself as Linda Lee, a student
at a girls' academy in the Midwest. The long arm of coincidence makes
Lois Lane's cousin her roommate. The only point of this seems to be to
introduce Jimmy Olsen as Lana Lane's boyfriend, but, since he has
nothing to do other than represent the otherwise absent cast of the
"Superman" movies, this point seems pointless. Rather than bustle
about looking for the octahedron, Supergirl wastes her time attending
classes. There's another worthless subplot involving Dunaway's and
Slater's rivalry over Hart Bochner, a gardener who attracts their
attention.
The screenplay of "Supergirl" is very arbitrary and makes little
sense. Would two idiots really try to rape a woman in a Superman
costume, particularly when she had already blown one of them through a
wall and heated up the knife the other one pulls? Why does the
octahedron make its container grow? Why does the voodoo wand Dunaway
lays her hands on suddenly give her complete control over the
octahedron's power? Why, when a love spell goes awry, doesn't Dunaway
immediately break it? Again, don't bother sending me justifications, I
really don't care. There's no point plugging holes in a Swiss cheese.
David Odell deserves the blame for the screenplay. A few good lines do
not make up for the overall dreadfulness of this script.
Some people protested when, earlier this year, I predicted that
"Supergirl" would be a disaster due to the choice of Jeannot Szwarc as
director. They said that my assessment of Szwarc as a hack was too
harsh. Well, I was right and they were wrong. Szwarc, in fact, gives
a bad name to hacks. He has absolutely no visible talent. The man
just cannot direct. Since Alexander Salkind has chosen him to direct
"Santa Claus", too, that film also is doomed to disaster. No great
matter, it was a rotten idea anyway, and by keeping Szwarc busy on it,
Salkind may have kept him from ruining a film with some potential. I
am quite sure that Szwarc's main attraction for Salkind is that he
works quickly and cheaply. Rapid shooting is OK, but not if it shows,
and "Supergirl" displays telltale signs of shoddy, careless direction,
probably due in part to cutting corners.
One of the few good things about "Supergirl" is the production
design, which is superb. The sets are beautifully dressed and are
quite original. The special effects are of variable quality and
sometimes detract from the otherwise excellent surroundings. Many of
the flying effects are unconvincing. To paraphrase the advertising
slogan of the first "Superman" film, I do not believe that a girl can
fly. There are also some overly obvious mattes and composite shots.
On the other hand, some of the effects do work, particularly the
carnage of an invisible monster sent to destroy Supergirl.
The acting is also variable. Helen Slater starts out very badly,
but eventually turns out all right. She is much better as Linda Lee
than as Kara, and she is certainly not the find Christopher Reeve
was. Hart Bochner has such a rotten part that it's hard to say whether
he's unbearable through his own fault or not. Brenda Vaccaro, on leave
from tampon commercials, is pretty good as Dunaway's sidekick. Peter
Cook is largely wasted as Dunaway's ex-mentor, though he does have a
good moment teaching the girls of Linda Lee's academy, reminiscent of
some of the great skits he used to do with Dudley Moore in reviews like
"Good Evening", classics like "The Frog and Peach", "One Leg Too Few",
and "Down the Mine". But I digress. Mia Farrow and Simon Ward share
only one scene as Kara's parents.
Acting is a mystery to me, despite the fact that I have seen
thousands of performances in films and have even done some acting on
stage myself. Why is it that when Peter O'Toole, a very talented
actor, lets out all the stops he is utterly delightful, whereas Faye
Dunaway, also quite talented, is merely embarrassing when she uses the
same tactic? Perhaps O'Toole would have been equally annoying if he
had more scenes, but I don't think so. His eventual reappearance is
one of the highlights of the film, even though his duties are just as
silly as everyone else's. Faye Dunaway, on the other hand, overacts so
outrageously that her perpetual presence is very hard to take. Some
people may view her performance as high camp, and I suppose that that
is what she was trying for, but I found her only intermittently
amusing.
The careless nature of "Supergirl" makes it completely unen-
gaging. Only the less discriminating fans of special effects ex-
travaganzas and those with a taste for surfeits of camp will get much
out of it. "Supergirl" isn't really much fun, and, for this kind of
film, that is the ultimate indictment.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher