Supergirl by Claudia Sarne
2026 has seen the release of the second film in James Gunn’s DCU, Supergirl directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Milly Alcock in the lead role. I saw this film today at the cinema and it felt like a missed opportunity, there was much potential but it just didn’t quite click. Regardless of the quality of a film, there can always be a brilliant score behind a mediocre film, however, I’m not sure that is the case here.
The music is composed by Claudia Sarne - the third composer to take a crack at the film - and she is not a composer I’m particularly knowledgeable about. I did however really enjoy the score for James Gunn’s Superman last year which leaned heavily into that classic John Williams theme - Walking on Air is a brilliant track. Sarne has not taken the same approach and has produced something more akin to Hans Zimmer’s Man of Steal score.
The album begins with The Supergirl Suite and this is very Hans Zimmer with a gentle piano intro before morphing into a mix of strings, brass, percussion and guitars with a slight rockier edge which to be fair, suits the character well. There seems to be a clear character theme in there with strings and drums really emphasising it before it goes a bit more electronic. There is no doubt that it is a heroic theme but I’m afraid it comes acorss as a touch anoymous.
The second track Bar Fight has more personality about it and with it’s snare drum tapping and heavy guitar, wouldn’t be out of place in a modern Western, especially with those heavy guitar twangs. Krypton Destroyed is a string heavy piece with a big vocal choir that scores the fall of Kara’s home planet. It just feels like it’s a sneeze away from being great but never quite explodes as it should. The return of the electric guitar - again, I understand the link to the main character here - but it robs the track of real emotional resonance. Cat and Mouse Hunt is a real change of tone and is the first big action piece of the film and reminds me of something you might hear in a Bourne film, big focus on the strings to rank up the tension and again, the electric guitar returns to add to that out-worldly feel but it’s hard not to see the piece as generic, with touches of a Blade Runner or a Tron but without the depth. Silent Scream is a much more toned down track and captures one of the better moments in the film, there is reference back to that Supergirl motif and the track builds beautifully and dramatically to a strong conclusion - it’s one of the few pieces that feel like a whole piece of music.
The motif returns in the track Supergirl which scores the beginning of the climatic battle and the use of that motif is far more pronounced and effective here, the strings and percussion really add weight to it and it avoids leaning too heavily into the electric guitar - it feels like something Hans Zimmer would produce. Two more emotive tracks close the album, Clark’s Apartment seems to flirt with the Superman themes and is both playful and sweet with a big focus on those heroic yet soft strings. It ends with a brilliant flourish that feels genuine rather than anonymous. Reunited is similar, but with more woodwind and captures the sweet moment Kara is reunited with Krypto, it’s a lovely end to an album that seems to only find it’s musical identity in the last few tracks.
Sarne’s score has pleasant moments when consumed as an album but within the film, it is lost. The constant needle drops of songs which at points seem baffling simply drowns it out. There are few moments where it really cuts through and it is utterly forgettable. It would have been nice to have a Supergirl theme that is even close to memorable. Ramin Djawadi tried, then Tom Holkenborg tried and then we got Sarne’s take on Supergirl. It feels like a film where the score was never a priority and where Sarne was never allowed to let the music influence the film in terms of spectacle or emotion, but rather provide fairly bland, generic and anonymous music in between a playlist of random songs.
The DCU will next release Clayface in October, I think James Gunn and his team have work to do around their relationship with the significance of a film score.
Favourite Tracks: Supergirl, Clark’s Apartment and Reunited.