Countdown to Superman: Supergirl (1984)

A sidestep tonight, mostly because I need to work up the courage to deal with the last two Superman movies. Though, admittedly, this one is not much better.  

Ok, so Helen Slater is playing Kara Zor-El, Kal-El's cousin, aka Supergirl. She is more or less the unknown here. Speaking of which, where is Superman? Oh, he is on a "peacekeeping mission" to a galaxy several hundred trillion light years away." Ok. Why...oh never mind, it is better than the proposed idea for this movie with a sex scene between Superman and Supergirl. I think I read that in Starlog.

Anyway. Supergirl ends up in Chicago, of all place,s where the Omegahedron, the powersource from Argo City (that she lost) ends up in the hands of two would-be witches played by Faye Dunaway and Brenda Vaccaro, and their sidekick played by Peter Cook. Even Supergirl's mother was played by Mia Farrow. Her mentor is even played by Peter O'Toole.  Helen Slater might have been the biggest unknown here.

Ok. I kind of forgot how bad this movie was. I mean I knew, but damn. Also, did A&W sponsor this? Lots of product placement in this one. It's remarkable how many great actors are in this, yet it's still so bad. 

According to the map Kara is using to look for the Omegahedron, Midvale is just a bit north of Peroria, IL (home of tomorrow night's guest Richard Pryor), and south of Ottawa, IL (near where "Man of Steel" was filmed for the Smallville scenes.  So, an area I'm familiar with. Funny, I don't remember a Midvale there. 

Ok, so I did like the magic aspect of it. Magic and Superman are sometimes an ify mix, but given everything else, it works here. There is even a great example of the "Mirror Image" spell. 

There's little point in going through the plot here, as the story is thin at best. 

The Shadow Demon is kind of cool looking.

Don't get me wrong, Helen Slater was awfully fun as Supergirl. Melissa Benoist is still my favorite Supergirl, but Slater was still fun.

Cameos

Helen Slater will go on to play Kara's Earth mother, Dr. Eliza Danvers, in the Supergirl CW series. Marc McClure plays Jimmy Olsen, but that shouldn't really count. The Supergirl series is a great one for repeat cameos.