5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
When she loses her city's vital power supply, Kryptonian Kara follows it to Earth in the hopes of retrieving it. Although gifted with powers like her cousin Superman, Kara struggles to defeat the evil Selena, who now controls the mighty object. To fit into her new surroundings, Kara disguises herself as high school student Linda Lee and says that she's Clark Kent's cousin.
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Helen Slater, Peter O'Toole, Mia Farrow, Brenda VaccaroComic book | 100% |
Sci-Fi | 41% |
Fantasy | 37% |
Action | 20% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Supergirl isn't a particularly good movie, but that hardly matters. The 1984 comic-book adaptation was the
first major motion picture to feature a female superhero, paving the way for later female-centered
projects on both the large and small screens. The script is problematic, the characters are often
ridiculous and the effects and production design are frequently laughable, but Supergirl retains an
undeniable charm, much of which is attributable to star Helen Slater, making her film debut at
age 19. Supergirl inaugurated a career for Slater that would include memorable roles in Ruthless
People, The Legend of Billie
Jean and The Secret of My Success. She
would eventually pull back
from the film industry to devote time to her family, but she keeps popping up, most recently in
the fitting role of Eliza Danvers, foster mother to the current incarnation of her former character
on The CW's hit series.
The Warner Archive Collection is adding Supergirl to its Blu-ray library, and even before its
official release, the disc was controversial. The film exists in multiple versions, including the
drastically shortened U.S. theatrical cut that bombed at the box office, a longer international cut
that is considered by most to be the best version of the film (and had the director's approval),
various video and TV incarnations, and a 138-minute so-called "director's cut" that was first
made available by the now-defunct Anchor Bay in 2000. Scenes appear in one version that are
absent from all others. Music cues and dialogue differ. A full excavation of Supergirl's alternate
presentations would rival the density of Blade
Runner's history.
But despite the intensity of their devotion, Supergirl's fans aren't sufficiently numerous to
support a multi-version presentation like the historic Blade
Runner "Final Cut" set, especially
within WAC's tight budget constraints. And even if WAC's corporate parent were inclined to
make the investment, Warner doesn't have all of the essential source materials. Like the
Superman films,
Supergirl was the subject of intense and protracted legal disputes between the
studio and the films' producers (which explains why the first DVD presentations were released
by Anchor Bay).
When the dust finally settled, Warner received unfettered rights to the film, but many of the
original visual and audio elements were nowhere to be found, even after the studio obtained
access to a trove of materials held by Studio Canal. Accordingly, WAC has opted to release on Blu-ray the 125-minute
international version, newly scanned and remastered from an interpositive, accompanied by the
138-minute "director's cut" (139 minutes, if you round upward) taken from Anchor Bay's
standard-definition DigiBeta tape, which is the only source in Warner's possession. The
"director's cut" appears on a separate DVD.
Supergirl was shot by the distinguished British cinematographer Alan Hume, whose credits
include Return of the Jedi and three of
Roger Moore's Bond films. For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection has worked from an archival interpositive of the
complete 125-minute international version, which had suffered significant wear and damage but
was deemed usable. Warner's MPI facility scanned the IP at 2K, followed by color correction
using an archival answer print on low-fade stock as a reference. The master required unusually
extensive cleaning to remove dirt and repair scratches, tears, streaks and other age-related
damage. However, MPI was given express instructions not to remove visible wires or other
remnants of dated effects technology that would have been part of the film when it was released
in 1984. (Look closely at Supergirl's initial emergence from the water in screenshot 12; the wire pulling her would be digitally erased in a
contemporary production, but in the analog era they relied on well-timed edits and a slight loss in resolution as the IP was printed down to release
prints.)
The resulting image is beautifully colorful and
remarkably detailed, and it showcases, for better and worse, Supergirl's frequently goofy and
incongruous costumes and production design. (Faye Dunaway's outfits are a hoot; she looks
more like a circus act than a villain.) Primaries are rich, densities and black levels are excellent, and
the extensive clean-up of the IP's damage has paid off in improved clarity and stability. It's a
grainy film, which is typical of the era—Ghostbusters
was released the same year—and many of
the effects sequences achieved optically are even grainier, which was an inescapable side effect
of that process. MPI has not attempted to apply any grain reduction, and the Blu-ray
reproduces the film's original grain pattern naturally and accurately. Supergirl looks like it
should and better than I've ever seen it on home video (and, I'll wager, better—and
cleaner—than most theatrical prints in 1984).
Following its usual practice, WAC has authored the disc with a high average bitrate, here 34.99
Mbps.
Supergirl was released to theaters in Dolby Stereo Surround, but the magnetic master of that mix
could not be found. When Anchor Bay released the film on Blu-ray, it did a 5.1 remix for the
125-minute international version, of which Warner now has the uncompressed digital audio files.
That mix was used for both Anchor Bay's 2000 DVD and Warner's 2006 reissue, and it has also
been used for this Blu-ray, but now in lossless DTS-HD MA. If there were mixing notes from
Anchor Bay's work, they have not survived, nor was Warner successful in locating original stems
or other sources from which Anchor Bay might have worked. Thus, this lossless 5.1 soundtrack
represents the best available version.
Anchor Bay did a fair number of 5.1 remixes for DVD, and I have often found them gimmicky,
throwing sounds into the rear speakers to show off the multi-channel format rather than serve the
story. But Supergirl's mix is one of the former publisher's better efforts, with the dialogue firmly
centered in front, a sparing but effective use of the rear channels and a rousingly effective
reproduction of Jerry Goldsmith's soaring score. It must have been a daunting prospect to
follow in the steps of John Williams' work on Superman: The Movie, but Goldsmith was more
than equal to the challenge. If the rest of Supergirl were up to the level of Goldsmith's work (and
Slater's performance), it might have been a great movie.
A member of the Blu-ray.com forum who is a dedicated Supergirl fan has advised me that an
early portion of the soundtrack on Anchor Bay's and Warner's DVDs contains an alternate
Goldsmith cue from that used in the director's cut and (according to this member) several other
versions. It is unknown what materials Anchor Bay used for its remix and, if music cues were
changed, for what reason. However, given the extensive gaps in the extant materials outlined
above, WAC has not attempted to alter Anchor Bay's mix.
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2006 DVD of Supergirl, with the addition of
the "Making Of" documentary that appeared on Anchor Bay's two-disc "Limited Edition" from
2000 (now out of print). Various additional extras were not carried over from the Anchor Bay set,
including foreign trailers, the U.S. TV spots and image galleries with storyboards, posters and
production stills.
WAC's Blu-ray will delight some devoted fans of Supergirl, while frustrating others who want
every version and who take issue with the Anchor Bay soundtrack utilized by Warner. It will
baffle (and hopefully amuse) newcomers, because it's unlike any superhero movie before or
since, a dotty concoction that aspires to grandeur and more often achieves the ridiculous—but
still manages to retain a distinctive charm. WAC has done a fine job of remastering the film's
international cut, which is highly recommended on its technical merits. The film itself is a matter
of taste.
2011
2019
2005
Theatrical Cut
1980
1987
2019
2008
2006 Original Release
2006
1978
2017
2009
2013
plus Theatrical Cut on standard Blu-ray
2016
The Richard Donner Cut
1980-2006
Cinematic Universe Edition
2017
Extended and Theatrical versions
2011
Cinematic Universe Edition
2019
Cinematic Universe Edition
2018
Cinematic Universe Edition
2015
2019