- Content: “Cosmic Battles Against Evil”
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What You Need To Know:
The pilot episode of DC’S STARMAN is an engaging opening to the series. The script and cast do a good job setting the stage. Viewers don’t get a good look, however, at the heroic themes that will animate the series. It’s clearly a battle between good and evil. Also, Courtney’s new stepfather clearly wants to protect her and her mother. That said, the episode contains some implied politically correct elements, a few obscenities, intense jeopardy and action violence, also an occult comment, and a couple crude instances of name calling. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children for the pilot episode of DC’s STARGIRL.
Content:
Light moral worldview about good versus evil, tinged, however, with some implied Romantic, politically correct elements that seem to promote a liberal view toward tradition and a rich versus poor anti-capitalist motif, but title character’s positive stepfather owns a small garage (future episodes in the series will show how politically correct the program’s creators will take the program), plus there’s an comment and a visual image supporting the astrological idea that the stars are “being aligned”
Teenage boy calls one girl the “b” word after calling another girl “slut,” teenage girl says the “h” word, boy uses a** word, and character says OMG profanity
Strong action violence in several scenes includes man and teenage girl use staff with super powers to fight villains and bullies, mansion is filled with green fires, blue and yellow energy bolts hit people and things and cause a couple explosions, man impaled in stomach by some kind of pointy object thrown by villain, heroes and villains punch and hit one another during opening fight scene, man dies of his stomach wound, staff with super powers drags teenage girl into the air and to other places, supervillain uses telekinetic powers to hurl rocks and tires at a couple people, same supervillain uses his power to drag a teenage girl toward him to interrogate her, he threatens to “melt” the girl’s brain, teenage girl does gymnastic tricks with staff that levitates, etc.
No sex, but teenage boy calls a girl a “slut”
No nudity
No alcohol
No smoking or drugs; and,
Bullying but rebuked, teenage girl sneaks out of the house, girl’s father doesn’t show up for Christmas and vanishes, and teenage girl is wary around her stepfather but she comes around when he shows he wants to protect her and her mother and her stepbrother.
More Detail:
The pilot episode opens by saying, “A Golden Age of Heroes protected the world for decades. Ten years ago, that Golden Age ended. . .” Cut to Starman’s sidekick, Pat, racing down the street in Los Angeles and busting through the gates of a huge mansion burning in green flames. Starman and his colleagues of the Justice Society of America in a big mansion battling the Injustice Society, led by a supervillain named Brainstorm. The battle isn’t going well for the Justice Society, and a fatally wounded Starman escapes with Pat in Pat’s flying red and white 1957 Chevy. The night Starman dies, a 5-year-old girl named Courtney waits for her daddy to come home for Christmas Eve, but he never shows.
Flash to 10 years later. Courtney’s father has never returned. Her mother, Barbara, has married Starman’s sidekick, but Pat hasn’t told her about his superhero past with Starman. Barbara met Pat on a visit to her hometown, Blue Valley, Nebraska, and she’s decided to move the family back to Blue Valley where Pat is opening a garage. However, Courtney’s not happy about moving out of Los Angeles, and she’s sulking.
In Blue Valley, on her first day of high school, Courtney learns that the school is no longer offering gymnastics, the main thing she was hoping to try at the new school. Also, during lunch and another girl are bullied by three jocks led by a boy named Henry. Courtney gets in trouble when she fights back.
At home that night, Courtney comes upon her stepfather’s hidden stash of Starman gear, including his Cosmic Staff, which absorbs stellar energy to give its wielder special powers and is able to shoot yellow bolts of lightning. The staff lights up when Courtney touches it. It takes her out to a nearby park, where Courtney learns the staff can fly if she lifts it up.
The staff flies her to the local drive-in, where Henry and the other two bullies are bullying some students in their cars. Using the staff, Courtney stops the bullies from harassing the students. When Henry says, “You’re dead, kid,” the staff suddenly has a mind of its own and fires a bolt at Henry, but Henry steps aside and the bolt blows up Henry’s car. The staff flies Courtney away from the scene.
Courtney returns home and tries to replace the staff where she found it, but Pat discovers her. He’s amazed to see that the staff seems to have an affinity for Courtney. He tells her about being Starman’s sidekick but assures her that Starman was not her father. Their private identities were different. Pat warns Courtney that people have died when they got too close to the Justice Society.
Henry tells his rich father about the incident at the drive-in. He orders Henry to bed, then opens a secret room behind a bookcase, which reveals a supervillain suit looking a lot like Brainwave’s.
Later that night, the staff wakes up Courtney and takes her outside to do some more practice. They soon run into Brainstorm who tries to interrogate her telepathically and threatens to melt her brain. Courtney tries to fight back with the staff. The fight ends with a surprise.
The pilot episode of DC’S STARMAN is an engaging opening to the series. The script and the cast do a good job of setting the stage for what’s to come. Viewer’s don’t yet get a good look, however, at the heroic themes that will animate the series. All we know from the pilot episode is that the bad guys are mean bullies and killers, and the good guys are not.
It’s clear, though, that this is a battle between good and evil. Also, Courtney’s mother and new stepfather are clearly concerned about protecting Courtney and her stepbrother, Mike. That said, there are some implied Romantic, politically correct elements that seem to promote a liberal view toward tradition and a rich versus poor anti-capitalist motif. For example, a teacher tells Courtney she doesn’t need to be a gymnast; she can become a cheerleader. Also, Brainstorm is clearly a very wealthy man, so the episode has a tinge of anti-capitalist leftist class warfare. However, Courtney’s stepfather is opening up a garage, and he meets the owner of the gym across the street, so the pilot also has a small-town business vibe. Another issue is a comment made about the stars being aligned for Courtney’s discovery of the Cosmic Staff. This line establishes a possible metaphorical link to occult astrology. Finally, the pilot episode contains two obscenities and a light exclamatory profanity.
All in all, therefore, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children regarding the pilot episode of DC’S STARGIRL. Sadly, except perhaps for THE FLASH, all the other CW superhero programs contain frequent strong politically correct elements and other dangerous worldviews and philosophies. For example, occultism and homosexual lust has totally taken over CW’s superhero program, LEGENDS OF TOMORROW. So, media-wise viewers should be skeptical of this new one until MOVIEGUIDE® can tell you otherwise.
