It’s no secret that I don’t like Zack Snyder’s films. Watchmen was good, but missed the point of the comics in several ways, and 300 and Sucker Punch were both pretty, brain-dead slogs for me. Clearly, he has his fans. (I’m told Dawn of the Dead doesn’t do this, but haven’t bothered to see it yet.) And yet every one of their trailers was pretty great. The teaser trailer(s) for Man of Steel is no exception in that regard.
I’m honestly surprised, though: it’s not just AWESOME cranked up to 11. It feels mature. It feels grown-up. It looks grounded in reality (or as grounded in reality as a film about a man who can fly can get). Its tone is… really kind of beautiful. The presence of red and blue and nearly every shot of the trailer, all presumably from footage before Clark takes on the cape, is clever (and far more subtle than that sounds).
It’s easy to assume producer Christopher Nolan had some influence with that, but I think that would be unfair to Mr. Snyder. Still, his trailers have been good before, and his films… less good, so I don’t want to get my hopes up too much for a great Superman film. We’ll see next year.
The footage in both of these teasers is identical (I think), but the voiceovers are different, so check them both out:
Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel stars Henry Cavill, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as Martha and Jonathan Kent, Michael Shannon, Antje Traue (Pandorum), Ayelet Zurer, and Russell Crowe as Jor-El. The film is slated for a June 14, 2013 release.
The bit that strikes me is the frequent use of ground-level/insect-in-foreground shots. That is how Mankind is to Superman – small, insignificant observers. And yet, we’re not scared by this – we feel, as we do watching the trailer, a distinct sense of awe.
I don’t know. It felt kind of dreary to me. But then, when it comes to DC super-heroes, I’m really not looking for “grown-up”. I’d rather have something that’s more Silver or Bronze Age (that’s ’60s or ’70s comics to those who don’t read them. I don’t know. Kind of makes me want to watch the Donner one again, though.
I’ve never been able to work up much enthusiasm for Superman.
However the more mature approach here and the imagery of the child playing with a cape is a nice one (I think they did something like that recently in a Superboy run which was really good until the darn reboot).
I do like 300. It’s got good visuals and it’s fun as a dumb “let’s watch hot guys fight” thing. However every one of his films that I’ve seen I dislike to one degree on the other.
Don’t bother with Dawn of the Dead, it just doesn’t get what makes the original so great.
I still think Dawn of the Dead was his best. Check it out, you won’t be sorry!
I actually really liked Sucker Punch when I watched the director’s cut (the theatrical cut’s not worth anyone’s time, imo). And Guardians of Ga’Hoole was cute. *shrugs* Ia on everything else, though, and his take on Dawn wasn’t very good at all in comparison to Romero– though, you know, that’s passably decent for non-Romero zombie cinema. No offense, undeadheads!
The only thing worrying me about the trailer is the hitchhiking shot– well, that and the lobstermen, unless movie Metropolis is up in New England somewhere. Idk. The hitching seems indicative of a young man’s angst-ridden and emotional journey to find himself in the big city before learning to face his problems at home//realize home is where you make it//find a true love and/or passion and/or mission that will soothe his misunderstood and tortured soul. Which… I can deal with the last one, if it’s done right, but nuts to all the rest. I’m all for updating the C. Kent mythos and bringing Supes into the 21st century, but we’ll see. It looks pretty, anyway.