Supergirl (1984) [Blu-ray]

Although Superman was long thought to be the only survivor of his doomed home world of Krypton many Kryptonians were able to survive its explosion and survive in 'inner-space.' Their survival was made possible due to a device known as the Omegahedron, which provides their city with energy to power their devices, and air to breathe, among other things. Argo City has blossomed into a utopian society where its inhabitants have become complacent. Zaltar, the city's founder and resident artist, expresses his desire to leave Argo City for parts unknown; however his plans are not to be. Having 'borrowed' the Omegahedron to bring his tree sculpture to life Zaltar attempts to hide his theft from Allura, Kara's mother, by secretly slipping the Omegahedron to Kara while discussing his plans for leaving inner space. Kara subsequently uses the Omegahedron on her own creation, an insect-like creature, that tears through one of the city's walls. When the precious Omegahedron is sucked into space all hope seems lost, but Kara is determined to return it before the lights, and lives, of Argo City are extinguished forever. Kara follows the Omegahedron to Earth and, discovering her powers, becomes Supergirl. Guided by a bracelet whose gem is linked to the Omegahedron, Supergirl follows the signal to Midvale, Illinois and assuming the alter ego of Linda Lee enrolls in an all girl college to provide herself with a cover story for her time on Earth. Meanwhile, the Omegahedron finds its way into the hands of a 'wicked sorceress' named Selena who harnesses its power to amplify her black magic. After experimenting on a chicken with her new found powers, Selena sets her eyes on winning the affections of Ethan, a handsome, if aloof, gardener. Selena's ambitions then reach new heights and she declares her desire to rule the world. Supergirl struggles to acclimate to Earth culture, as she fights mundane forces in the form of Myra and Muffy, two female bullies at her school; and magical ones in the form of the dark forces Selena repeatedly sends in an attempt to destroy her. Failing in her attempts to destroy Supergirl and claim Ethan as her consort, Selena enlists the help of her erstwhile mentor, Nigel, into helping her fully control the Omegahedron and, upon success, abruptly turns on him in true villainous fashion. Now, having mastered the powers of the Omegahedron, Selena successfully sends Supergirl to the Phantom Zone, where she is powerless, and promptly turns Midvale into a police state. Here, Supergirl is reunited with Zaltar who has been imprisoned for losing the Omegahedron. Zaltar ultimately sacrifices himself in order to lead Supergirl out of the Phantom Zone and back to Earth where she engages Selena in an all out battle of might versus magic for possession of the ultimate power. Considered a major failure for many years, Supergirl attempted to do what didn't occur until the release of Superman Returns in 2006, which was to revive a dying franchise. Critics panned the film for its camp, bad acting, poor use of actors, and sub par script. However, the popularity of Supergirl has grown over the years into a cult classic on par with The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Harold and Maude, and Reefer Madness to name a few. Although there are plot holes, there are not as many as have been claimed. One such plot hole which is often brought up is the question of where Supergirl gets her costume upon emerging from the lake following the Omegahedron. This question can be easily answered if you look closely when Kara enters the sphere which transports her to Earth you can clearly see that she sits on a clear package about the size of a throw pillow containing a suit in the familiar yellow, red, and blue. Other plot-holes such as the question regarding how Selena had knowledge of the Phantom Zone aren't so easily answered. Despite its plot holes and occasional over-acting, Supergirl is not without merit. The 'flying ballet' sequence, as it has been called, captures the beauty and joy of a naïve young girl coming into her own power. The musical score brings an added dimension to the actions occurring in the film. Blink and you will miss Matt Frewer of Max Headroom fame as a trucker looking for a good time. While some have criticized Peter O'toole as lacking any emotional depth in his performance, I see him as a world-weary artist bored with his own existence and hungry for new adventures. Faye Dunaway is at her best as the evil sorceress Selena, although some would argue that Joan Crawford (Dunaway's character in Mommy Dearest) would beat Selena with a wire hanger given half the chance. Brenda Vaccaro as Bianca seems to be for this film what Otis (Ned Beatty) was for Superman The Movie (and it's sequel) comic relief--although her attempts at humor often fall flat and many of her lines are largely un-necessary. Finally, Helen Slater in her movie debut as Supergirl stands her own against the many veteran actors in whose company she finds herself. She certainly looks the part and plays her dual role to perfection. Overall, this is a very enjoyable, family-oriented film that doesn't require you to think too much. If you love deadly bumper cars, invisible monsters, run-away tractors, flying ballets, ghost trains, world domination, pseudo-magic, demon storms, teenagers dangling in cages, and the sky raining coconuts with pin point accuracy--then this movie is for you and for two hours you will believe... a girl can fly!

Jeannot Szwarc’s 1984 “Supergirl” takes place within Alexander and Ilya Salkind’s “Superman” film series and stars Helen Slater as Kara Zor-El/Linda Lee/Supergirl, Faye Dunaway as Selena, and Peter O’Toole as Zaltar. Marc McClure reprises his role as Jimmy Olsen from the first three Christopher Reeve-era “Superman” films and thus is the only actor appearing in all of the films in this franchise. The story begins with Kara Zor-El (Slater) living in Argo City, which survived the destruction of Krypton in a pocket of trans-dimensional space. Zaltar (O’Toole), shows Kara a device known as the Omegahedron which is accidentally blown into space. Kara follows it to Earth in order to recover the Omegahedron and save the city, transforming into Supergirl along the way. On Earth, the would-be witch Selena (Dunaway) recovers the device and uses it to perform real magic. Supergirl, discovering her powers on Earth, takes the name Linda Lee, identifies herself as Clark Kent’s cousin, and enrolls at an all-girls school where she befriends Lucy Lane (Maureen Teefy), Lois Lane’s younger sister. Selena and Supergirl come into conflict after Selena’s attempt at a love-spell backfires. At one point, Selena traps Supergirl in the Phantom Zone, where she must prove her worth in its bleak environs. After her escape, she again battles Selena to save the Earth. The filmmakers intended for Christopher Reeve to cameo as Superman, but he bowed out early in production. To explain his absence, a news broadcast states that Superman left Earth on a “peace-seeking mission” to a distant galaxy. There is a photograph of Reeve’s Superman in Lucy and Linda’s shared dorm room, however. Though most box sets of the Reeve “Superman” films omit “Supergirl,” it is part of the same franchise. Furthermore, this was the first theatrical film led by a woman superhero. Unfortunately, its poor box office performance later led Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter to dismiss all female superhero films. While the budget for “Supergirl” was smaller than for the first three Christopher Reeve-“Superman” films, it was significantly larger than that of “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.” Perhaps the greatest problem was trying to make this film in the era before shared universes and contractually-mandated cameos. Without the strong connection between Superman and Supergirl as seen in the comics, the filmmakers had to invent a great deal so that this was effectively a standalone story, translating 25 years of comics stories to the screen at a time when reverence for a character’s history was less important than it is now. It's reputation may also have suffered from the comic book Supergirl’s death in the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” storyline DC published the following year. To its credit, the film gets the look of Supergirl herself perfect and the prep school scenes are a lot of fun. The filmmakers clearly put effort into designing this film so that it would be unique and not feel like a spinoff. The sets are sumptuous and the organic look of Argo City is an interesting contrast to the cold and metallic aesthetic of Krypton from the “Superman” films. Magic, as one of the principle weaknesses of both Superman and Supergirl in the comics, provides a good source of conflict for the film. I would classify this with other fun fantasy films of the 1980s like “The Neverending Story,” “Labyrinth,” or “Return to Oz.” There’s a certain charm here as the film’s fun in its own way and far better than “Superman IV.” In a fun bit of casting, Helen Slater later appeared as Superman’s mother in “Smallville” and Supergirl’s adopted mother in the CW’s “Supergirl” series. This DVD features the full film without the cuts made for American theatrical markets, including an extended sequence in Argo City.

I'm disturbed by all the negative reviews of this movie. It is my personal opinion that most of the negative reviews are a result of people not familiar with the story of Supergirl from the old comic book series based from the 1950's. Those with negative comments do not seem to understand that Supergirl was not intended to be a full-blown superhero matched to Superman. Unlike Supergirl, Superman had time for training prior to his en-devours. I watched a few reviews on YouTube, and I was stunned at some of the reasons why critics blasted this awesome movie. They used excuses such as the plot (nothing wrong with the plot), the villain too verbal, just to name a few. What a bunch of non-sense! A movie with action and romance; what else can you ask for in a superhero movie? And unlike the love scenes between Lois Lane and Superman, what young Kara experienced is nothing short of the real world lives of young teens all across the globe. Prior to visiting earth, she lived a life of social order, purity, solitude, and grace. It should come to no ones surprise that her reactions on earth with other people would leave her vulnerable. Thus, the director of Supergirl was spot on with his direction of the film. I watched Supergirl on VHS in the mid 1980's, and fell in love with it. Helen Slater did a marvelous job portraying a very young teenager. Having remembered my teenage years, I recall my first love, first kiss, and my first conflict. Supergirl was portrayed as a teenager experiencing these events for the very first time; Her first kiss as Linda Lee, blue me away and left me in tears....yes, a grown man crying even today after 17 years from first viewing Supergirl. Her first conflict with an evil witch hungry for global domination was not an easy task to deal with. Thus, Supergirl was not over-powering as Superman. Her inexperience's led to a near fatality as she was sent to the Phantom Zone by the evil witch Selena. I did find it a little odd that Selena would somehow obtain knowledge of the Phantom Zone. Even so, it still made for a very great story line. What fun would it have been if a young inexperienced Supergirl comes to earth and wins a solid victory with ease? Some are confused as to why Eathon lost interest in Linda at the end of the movie. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand this; the spell was broken after Selena was banished to the PhZ. Not to mention that Eathon was probably much older than young Kara anyways; this of course doesn't mean that he wasn't attracted to her. Helen Slater filled the outfit quite nicely. In fact, I'd say her dazzling and graceful appearance is more appealing than some of the smut and trash we see these days. Cat Woman was a disaster in my book. Cat Woman portrayed too much femininity full of power, and there was just too much sex-appeal. And it seems that most young girls these days are looking for the anti-type to Superman; they want someone who is almost indestructible, and not susceptible to vulnerabilities, but with a sleazy touch; short skirts, tight abdomen, and large breasts. Helen Slater dazzled me without any of that; I'd choose her over any modern day woman. Women these days have never been taught the idea of curiosity. It isn't always an appealing thing to reveal every inch of your body to a man (or woman); this comes later. I was impressed with Helen Slater in a DC comic book convention interview. She was asked if she would show her abdomen as the modern Supergirl photo's show, and her response was "NO, I WOULD NEVER SHOW MY MID-DRIFT". We need more female actors like Helen Slater to be a positive roll model for young women; that's something quite lacking these days. Women these days are becoming too sleazy, and quite frankly, worse than the men in the 1960's. Lastly, the music for Supergirl to this very day, blows me away. I had no idea that Jerry Goldsmith and his Orchestra composed and performed music from Star Trek the Motion Picture. I actually purchased the Supergirl CD sound track, and it's very soothing. My only concern is that the CD doesn't contain the sound-track of the fist love scene in the amusement park. Other than that, what a superb sound track which complements the movie quite well; Jerry Goldsmith's musical arrangements added definition and energy, and complemented each scene to near perfection. As stated, I really loved the romance theme music; very beautiful. I give 5 stars to Supergirl Limited Edition. Joseph

I have to admit, I was not expecting much. Surprised actually how good this movie was. Obviously it's not Shakespeare, but for what it is, I thought it was very good. Very well done. Loved the cast. Acting was good. Lot of laughs. Primary audience is probably tweens, but even as an adult, I found it highly entertaining. Lot of fun to watch.

I don't remember when I first heard about this film. But, it was at least at age five, a year after it was released to theaters. Apparently, most people didn't think much of it, because it was viewed historically as a commercial flop. A part of it may have been circumstantial, though. Supergirl production was started hot off the heals of the rap on Superman III, a film that performed abominably in the theaters. Pending who you asked, many people were starting to get burnt out on the Superman cannon, and they must've seen a teenage, female equivalent as a joke. If it had been produced and released in between Superman II and III, that might've had a more positive, circumstantial effect. Here, Helen Slater stars in her first leading role as Kara, the Kryptonian cousin to Superman (official name of Kal-El) who left Krypton with her parents to live in the inner-space settlement of Argo City. At the film's start, her mentor Zaltar (Peter O'Toole), incidentally the city's forefather, makes a mistake that forces a key power source, an omegahendron) to disappear into outer space, necessitating Kara's swift departure to rescue it, Zaltar's lifelong expulsion into Phantom Zone and possibly resulting in the whole city's eventual degradation. The omegahendron surfaces on earth and, the little ball is snared by a narcissistic, pretentious and vindictive would-be witch named Solina (Faye Dunaway) and her jittery sister, Bianca. When Kara surfaces on earth herself, she discovers she has unprecedented powers of flight, strength, hearing and mater manipulation. She uses an armband transmitter to detect the general location of the ball. Eventually, she manages to disguise herself to conceal her attire. Then, she passes as a student at a private university in a town called Midvale. She passes as Clark Kent's cousin, Linda Lee and forges a letter of recommendation from him. The headmaster places her with Lucy Lane, a sophomore who happens to be sister of Lois Lane and love interest of Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure reprising his Superman role). As a coincidence, their math teacher, a man named Nigel is also Solina's erstwhile instructor of black magic. He pursues her repeatedly, and she repeatedly rebuffs him. Meanwhile, all the girls at the school (including Linda) lust after a big, muscular groundskeeper named Ethan. But, Bianca also catches his eye, as does Solina, who says he belongs to her. Using a cheap form of black magic, she seduces him and tries to make him fall for her. However, her magic goes badly awry, and his heart instead falls to Linda (after she changes to her true identity and saves him from physical danger). Back in her dorm, Linda is forced to do battle with Solina's evil magic (as Kara) and comes out of this bout unscathed. Then, she gets a signal from her transmitter that the omegahendron is functioning, and she tears off for the abandoned amusement park where the evil sisters reside. And, who should be waiting for her but Ethan, spouting uncharacteristic love poetry and brandishing flowers & chocolates for Linda. The two are ambushed by the sisters, and Solina attempts to eliminate Linda, unsuccessfully. Linda is forced to change back into Kara and carry Ethan away to a distant lakeside. Solina eventually caves in and asks Nigel to help her eliminate Kara (whom she appropriately christens "Supergirl"). Nigel arrives at the park with a wand built for pure evil, which they use to lure Ethan back; Solina steals the wand, petrifies Nigel and creates a tall mountain with a castle on top in the exact middle of town. Supergirl arrives in the castle to rescue Ethan, only to find herself imprisoned in a diamond-shaped piece of glass, which then expels her to the Phantom Zone along with Zaltar. Meanwhile, she succeeds in subduing the whole community and seizing Lucy & Jimmy. at first, she doesn't know where she is, but she knows she's lost her powers. When she and Zaltar come into contact with each other, Kara tries convincing him that they shouldn't let the Phantom Zone consume them and that if they don't try and escape, Argo City is finished and so is earth. She uses straightforward teenage irony to finally win him over, and they push off for a deadly vortex. If they can circumvent the perimeter of the vortex, they can get to a way out. However, with the aide of her magic mirror, Solina spies on Kara & Zaltar and tries summoning elements of the Zone to kill them. She succeeds in finishing Zaltar, who lets himself die so Kara can push through. This she does, regaining her earthly abilities and flying straight through Solina's mirror and into the castle. Supergirl manages to rescue Lucy, Jimmy & Nigel from the cages they've been sealed in and engages a battle with Solina's dark magic. With help from Ethan and Nigel, Supergirl not only overpowers the magic but manages to create a vortex and shunt Solina & Bianca through the broken mirror and into the Phantom Zone. Afterwards, things return to normal, and Kara is able to return to Argo City with the reclaimed omegahendron. I for one thought the movie was well worth watching. I've actually watched it multiple times. It didn't include Christopher Reeve, Margot Kitter, Jackie Cooper or Gene Hackman, but that has very little to do with the quality of the film. It's an almost-completely new cast, and that does in fact add to the unacknowledged greatness of the film. It did go kind of far when the character of Ethan mentioned the fact that Supergirl [and Superman] could "leap tall buildings in a single bound." But, that was probably the only remotely inappropriate Superman reference in the finished product. There are only two real problems I've ever had with this film, and neither one of them could make me change my rating. First, How does Kara find out that Superman's earth identity is Clark Kent? Also, could someone explain to me where Solina could possibly have learned about the Phantom Zone, let alone send Supergirl there or manage to manipulate its elements?

At this point, I don't think it's worth telling about the movie itself because if you are looking at it, you probably already know some things about the film. This was made in 1984 way before the TV series came out. In my opinion, the only good thing about this movie is Helen Slater. She is not only beautiful but she plays the part extremely well. Unfortunately, the movie was a box office flop, not because of Slater but because of the terrible script. However, it is a family movie so it's fine for the kids. This review is actually not really about the film itself but about this Blu-Ray version as opposed to the regular DVD. In my opinion, the new Blu Ray is just an okay picture. It's better than the DVD (It better be!) but when I watched it I was not wowed with the upgrade. It still looks fairly grainy and it looks like they basically did a quick clean up job but didn't put much work into it because they probably didn't expect a lot of people to purchase this film so why bother with it? It is better but not by all that much. If you never bought this film and you would like to purchase it, I would go with this version as opposed to the regular DVD but if you already have it on DVD I don't recommend spending money on this Blu Ray version because I honestly don't think it makes enough difference. I learned this the hard way so I would like to warn others to not do the same unless you really do like this movie and want to get it in any version you can.

This movie gets alot of negative reviews but I enjoy it, it's part of Christopher Reeve's Superman universe and I really enjoy it.

It's an old movie that was not popular when it first came out but compared to what they make today it is cinema gold! It is like the comic book come to life with a story line you have to realize is much like the stories in comic books. A power source the size of a billiard ball, witches, a woman who is invulnerable, flies, and is super strong, it's all par for the course of a fictional fantasy! A truly heroic woman whose heart is full of compassion and a never give up attitude.

10/10 Rotten Tomatoes Flawless Victory

吹き替えが不評でその後のＤＶＤは吹き替え版が無くなったそうですが、ぜんぜん。。そんなことないと思う。もともとテレビでこの映画を初めて観ていたので、同じ声優さんたちによっての吹き替え。違和感ないですし、ピッタリな声だと思います。この映画は大学時代に観た映画。スーパーガールが飛んでいる時のＢＧＭは、大好きです。最近、スーパーマンなどブルーレイで吹き替え版の復刻版として売られているものがありますが、テレビでカットされたシーンが字幕で吹き替えがないようになってますが、この「スーパーガールで全部吹き替え有りです。

The Blu-ray came with the director, cut for Supergirl, which was really awesome. I’ve never seen that before.

Todo un clásico de los 80s que no pasan los años por el, como pasa con las de Superman. Imprescindible si eres fan. Y más ahora que viene la nueva película.

Dvd looks and plays great!! Happy with purchase from seller....