Epic? New Man of Steel Trailer

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/Wolvie09/news/?a=77722


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Fingers crossed!

As a lifelong DC fanboy, I want to love this new Superman movie, especially after the last one was such a dud.

It would be wonderful if Warner Bros. finally did something with the DC Universe other than crank out grim-and-gritty Batman flicks. A successful Superman franchise eventually could lead to my dream of dreams -- a JLA movie! I'd argue that DC's heroes are at least as rich in live-action potential as Marvel's. The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (when he's not played by Ryan Reynolds), Hawkman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, even Aquaman.

On a related note, with the casting of the beautiful Diane Lane in this movie, I'm uncomfortably hot for Ma Kent.

The three stages of fanboyhood:

1. I want to be Robin, the boy wonder, so I can hang out with Batman.

2. I want to be Batman.

3. I want to nail Superman's 50-year-old mother.

I've thought for a long time that DC should go the animated route for their all-linked-together films that ultimately lead to a JLA movie. Done with the success of films like The Incredibles in mind, there's no reason Warner Bros. couldn't have just as much merchandise as they can get out a live action property. Plus animation seems more up WB's alley, and it would set them apart from the Marvel films, make it look less like the floundering twenty-steps-behind gong show they've been performing since Iron Man ended with Nick Fury. Less trouble/money to produce too.

Yeah, I'd certainly be open to an animated JLA movie in the style of "The Incredibles!"

But I don't know if family-friendly fare is the direction Warner Bros. intends to go. It seems set on edgier PG-13 stuff -- to attract that 18-to-34-year-old male audience -- which is unfortunate, because I'm the father of a young fanboy who would love to see a few good DC superhero movies.

The latest Man of Steel Trailer does look pretty damn good. I'm looking forward to the movie now.

I'm still not looking forward to any JLA movies.

Actually, Benicio Del Toro's idea for a Justice League Dark movie sounds possibly okay. That may be the way to bring in the JLA, as sort of a colorful special effect in the background of other, darker movies. Like the famous scene from Swamp Thing #23? #24? where we see the JLA all in shadow in their satellite.

Lawson wrote:

On a related note, with the casting of the beautiful Diane Lane in this movie, I'm uncomfortably hot for Ma Kent.

The three stages of fanboyhood:

1. I want to be Robin, the boy wonder, so I can hang out with Batman.

2. I want to be Batman.

3. I want to nail Superman's 50-year-old mother.

But, she's definitely a 'Hollywood 50'!
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2435025408/nm0000178

I have high hopes for this movie, but whether it's a dud or a blockbuster, the franchise will go on, at this point my preference is probably for animation too. Jack Kirby was always effusive in his praise of Superman as a character.
I found this quote from him: "Superman is probably going to be the biggest classic of all time, like Robin Hood and all the things that'll live on forever. Superman will probably live on forever."

I'm 35 years old and even I think Diane Lane is friggin hot!

She's a nice looking woman. No Betty White, but who is?

I hadn't watched the trailer until now. I wasn't going to, because I have a general rule of not watching preview material for stuff I know I'm going to see anyway. As much as I was previously excited for Zack Snyder to take on Superman, Man of Steel wasn't really revving my engines so I decided to give the new trailer a shot in the hopes it my renew my earlier excitement.

Ehhhhh. I think the action sequences are going to be really cool and I like Michael Shannon (Zod) a lot but this trailer still didn't really float my boat. I'm hoping the film will blow me away, because I'm not going into it with high expectations. I really hope the film doesn't spend too long following a bearded Clark Kent doing his walk-the-Earth Bruce Wayne bit.

JamesCarter wrote:

I really hope the film doesn't spend too long following a bearded Clark Kent doing his walk-the-Earth Bruce Wayne bit.

Unless he trains with Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson).

Lawson wrote:

3. I want to nail Superman's 50-year-old mother.

If you haven't seen it, you should check out Under The Tuscan Sun. You'll get good husband points, as Mrs. Lawson will love it, they all love this film, but Diane Lane is so adorable in it, it's better than porn. I know it didn't stop Greg Brady (and Florence Henderson was no Diane Lane by a long shot), but imagine, this poor guy, Henry Cavill, he's dong okay, starring in this huge movie, going to be super rich, could have most women he sees, and he's thinking, "Wow one of the hottest women on the planet, but she's playing my mom..."

And she's NOT 50. Dammit. Forty-eight is years away from fifty, years I tells ya!
http://girls.gunaxin.com/diane-lane-turns-48-today/140622

Damn, that's an attractive woman.

I should also mention that Amy Adams, who plays Lois Lane in this movie, is cute as a bug's ear. (And at age 38, she is more than mature by Hollywood standards.)

Would it be wrong to dream about being in a Lois-Ma Kent sandwich?

Even more EPIC stuff! The opening credits for Man of Steel...

http://www.blastr.com/2013-4-24/fans-create-sweet-man-steel-opening-sets-bar-high-snyder

I'm gonna stop watching the trailers now.

No knock on Joe for posting the link -- many people love trailers -- but the Interwub combined with Hollywood's publicity machine have made it possible to see almost an entire movie before you ever set foot in the theater with your tub of popcorn. You've certainly already seen most of the best action sequences and the funniest lines.

Once I know I'm going to see a movie, it makes no sense for me to watch the trailers.

Thats not the actual movie, its just a fan film. But it's really good.

Lawson wrote:

I'm gonna stop watching the trailers now.

No knock on Joe for posting the link -- many people love trailers -- but the Interwub combined with Hollywood's publicity machine have made it possible to see almost an entire movie before you ever set foot in the theater with your tub of popcorn. You've certainly already seen most of the best action sequences and the funniest lines.

Once I know I'm going to see a movie, it makes no sense for me to watch the trailers.

I seem to recall that before The Amazing Spider-Man was released, someone (and damned if I can find it online) made up a collection of all the promotional videos released. The entire thing added up to something ridiculous like 30 minutes (I actually believe it was more) of unique footage.

On that note, I'm very strict with myself about avoiding preview material for films I know I'm going to see. When I went into Avengers I had seen nothing. Everything was new to me. I mean, maybe I take it too far the other way, but I really think it's crazy when people dig up every little scrap of information they can, even knowing the ending before they go in. I can't see how knowing a film's best moments enhances anyone's enjoyment.

JamesCarter wrote:

When I went into Avengers I had seen nothing. Everything was new to me.

I tried very hard to walk into "The Avengers" cold, knowing nothing other than it was gonna be a movie about the Avengers and it probably would kick ass (as it did).

Aggravating my situation, with our kid, we only get a free evening to see movies maybe once a month. So "The Avengers" had been in theaters for a few weeks before I finally made it to a screening. That required more or less staying off the Internet and holding up my hand and saying "Buh-buh-buh-buh!" if anyone in real life started to discuss the movie.

So no one actually checked out the totally fake, fan made, completely pretend opening credits?

OK here's a trailer for Man of Steel made entirely of bits from the Superman The Animated Series...

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2013/04/man_of_steel_trailer_in_superman_the_animated_seri.php

Waaaaait a minute.

Does Krypton not explode in this new movie?

Because losing the red swim trunks was one thing, but leaving Krypton intact ... guh. That's sort of a key point of who Superman is, the last son of Krypton, an orphan sent to Earth by his birth parents. I dunno that I'm crazy about the idea of Krypton -- and all the Kryptonians -- still alive out there in space while Superman is here.

Entertainment Weekly has posted this plot summary:

... Enter Henry Cavill, the 29-year-old dark-haired, blue-eyed Brit selected to don the red cape this time. In this iteration, Clark Kent's heroic tendencies would rise to the surface only when the threat was great enough. It would have to be a global menace — one that might also trigger an internal conflict about whether he belongs on Earth even as he yearns to be among his own kind. That's what pits him against General Zod (Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon), a Kryptonian tyrant who wants Clark to join him back on Krypton, which would mean abandoning his post as defender of the weaklings of Earth.

Guh, stupid double-post!

I will see this movie at some point (probably) but at the moment I'm having a hard time finding almost anything to pull me in. The one thing I'm keen to see his how Zack Snyder's cool directional style shows off the big action sequences, but everything else is completely turning me off. So many of the key factors that make up my perception of what makes Superman the character he is don't appear to be in the film, or they've added extra stuff for...some reason.

I do hope it's a good movie and I hope I'm completely misjudging it. It should not be that difficult to make a good Superman film.

I'll see the movie without much enthusiasm because I'm a lifelong DC fanboy.

I'm embarrassed to say that.

It would be wonderful if the movie won me over. So far, not much about it appeals to me. The track record for DC superhero movies is not impressive. I'm the one guy on Earth who wasn't crazy about Christopher Nolan's Dark Night movies -- too grim and gritty, noisy and utterly joyless.

Lawson wrote:

I'll see the movie without much enthusiasm because I'm a lifelong DC fanboy.

I'm embarrassed to say that.

It would be wonderful if the movie won me over. So far, not much about it appeals to me. The track record for DC superhero movies is not impressive. I'm the one guy on Earth who wasn't crazy about Christopher Nolan's Dark Night movies -- too grim and gritty, noisy and utterly joyless.

Far from it Mr. Lawson. There are a lot of people who didn't like Nolan's "realistic" take on Batman, myself included. I certainly enjoyed Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but the third film 'The Dark Knight Rises' was horrible. I say this as someone who doesn't look for and *very* rarely notices flaws in films, but TDKR's stood out like a sore thumb. Heck, I went into the cinema excited and wanting to love it, and left with the feeling that Nolan and crew were sick of the property and just wanted to get it done.

In my opinion "realism" has no place in a Batman film. I want Poison Ivy and a cool Batmobile, I want Robin and a Caped Crusader who doesn't speak like a moron.

I would be so happy if they stopped with the eye makeup. And the fake husky voice.

The Batman voice doesn't work too well in live-action, but it would probably be great in a cartoon, where Bruce Wayne and Batman are clearly the same people, but a talented voice actor could make one seem like a ditzy playboy and the other seem like the only monster in a city full of them who protects the innocent.

"Dark Knight" was an extremely good movie (aside from the sound editing and some of the miscellaneous movie-making stuff.) They got lots of story in, building up to some good results. The first half of the movie had to be devoted to setting up Harvey Dent as an awesome good guy, someone that Bruce Wayne/Batman would respect and admire as an ally fighting for the same cause. This makes his turn into Two-Face all the more scary and threatening. Similar in style to how "The Avengers" built Hawkeye up, showing him as a competent, capable, deadly agent as he's brainwashed to serve the villain. Once he's free of the brainwashing, we can believe in him using those same skills in ways that The Avengers need. Agents Coulson and Hill were more 'everyman' versions of Barton (and Natasha.) They proved repeatedly that they could do great things, but they were also not up to Hawkeye and the Black Widow's level. Obviously realism went out the window. Hawkeye hits flying speeders without even looking at them, Natasha keeps running and fighting for the rest of the movie after being backhanded into a cement wall by the Hulk. Who cares? They still meet the standard for superheroes.

Back at "Dark Knight", I don't think Keith Ledger was a good Joker. As a psychopathic supervillain terrorizing a city and only Batman can stop him, he was amazing. Great Batman villain, but not The Joker. I never even got around to seeing the third movie in the series.

The fan-made Superman intro scene was all right, I guess. I would have preferred to see the real credits instead of Kevin Costner and so on. It certainly told a good intro. That costume is hideous though, the "S" logo is even worse, and I'm pretty sure those are established from the upcoming movie.

The earlier trailer looks like it gives Superman some decent action sequences - lifted from the Marvel movies, no doubt - but other than that it looks as bad, if not worse, than the last Superman movie. The endless focus on Krypton is as annoying as in the Mort Weisinger era of comics. And Smallville for that matter. And just the nonsense of his origin in the first place. Superman's an adult. Do you expect police officers to endlessly ruminate on where they were born?

Here's a plot I dashed off once upon a time, inspired by "Superman Returns" and the notion that he left for five years to 'find his roots.'
Focus strictly on the ‘why the world needs Superman’ angle, crossing the original ‘social justice’ approach with a bit of comic-book science. Luthor has become a big businessman, partially by inventing neat gadgets, partially by muscling in on other business with his gang of crooks. He’s built a machine which increases hatred and fear in society, so when Superman returns from Krypton, he’s got his hands full with stopping brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, community against community, and no one has any time to pay attention to Luthor’s schemes. Some people are affected so much by the machine they are driven to suicide, such as a person restrained by Superman thrashes so violently that he breaks his own neck. Meanwhile, Luthor accumulates power and resources, sending his gang to smash competitors, pretty damn sure that Superman won’t violate the sanctity of property. He does have to make sure Superman is kept busy, so he starts aiming the hatred at Superman and may have taken over the Daily Planet by this point. He also has some kryptonite stashed as a last resort. Meanwhile, society is falling apart because everyone except Luthor’s gang is paying more attention to *getting* someone else instead of their own work. After Luthor takes over a company (or whatever), he gives the people there an antidote/immunity to his machine’s effects, so he keeps them in line because if they try to cross him, they’ll be out in the cold, cruel world.

Once Superman figures out Luthor’s scheme, he tries to get Lois to publish an expose, but she just starts screaming at him for trying to pick up where they left off. She keeps hitting him and hitting him, and he’s begging her to stop. Not because she’s damaging him, but he loves her and she’s damaging herself. How much of her behavior is from Luthor’s machine, and how much is the hurt he’s caused her by leaving five years ago?

Finally Superman’s destroyed the machine, just as Luthor (who’s overreaching by this point) sends everybody he can to attack. There’s a brief pause between the crowd retreating from Superman where he makes peace with Lois, and Luthor at his HQ, confident in victory. The mob marches up to Superman. “Uh-oh”. They’re no longer swept up in hate and rage, but they obey their master to attack Superman. Superman stands up to them and, right out of DK2, says “I won’t fight, nor will I flee. Do your worst.” They’re not his enemies. They’re the people he is here to save. Then they pull out the kryptonite.

Superman falls, they’ve got him. But more and more they’re starting to think for themselves. They can’t lynch him, that’s exactly the kind of thing he always showed them not to do. The world needs Superman because he provides a better example to follow, shown again when he stops them from stringing up Luthor.





And here's a plot I dashed off [I do love dashing off plots] as to how a movie could accommodate Lois, Lana, Smallville, and the overall importance of a hero like Superman to the world:
It starts in Smallville. Clark and Lana are young and stupidly in love. Ma and Pa have left him a corny saying, ‘the one who writes tomorrow’s headlines knows what troubles happened today’ or something noble and good but utterly un-Superman-like. Clark is planning to move to Metropolis, with his heart set on the Daily Planet for a job. In Smallville, he’s very much a go-getter, but clearly wasting his time there. Everybody knows he’s intended for something bigger and better. That’s only Just, in its best small-town sense.

As Superman, he is invisible. He helps people anonymously, changing his clothes in the few phone booths around. It isn’t explained until the end why he wears the tights. He’s also constructing the Fortress of Solitude, where the only known pieces of kryptonite are stored. He only has a handful of trophies, most of which are headlines of his nearest brushes with being discovered. One headline mentions K-Metal, a mysterious radioactive substance whose only known traces have vanished.

Lana knows Superman is building a place she can never get to. She still intends to move to Metropolis with Clark, although their relationship begins to dissolve after she overhears him talking about their relationship to someone on the phone. It can be played for comedy, drama, exposition, whatever.

Clark begins to commute between Metropolis and Smallville, no difficulty for him, but increasingly-unbelievable. However his initial job efforts at the Planet don’t go well. He’s not much more than a gofer, and is immediately linked in Lois’ mind to Jimmy Olsen. Pratfalls ensue; he’s a geek. However he is motivated by getting the headline. He gets some scoops and quickly shines to the point where he has his own cubicle. Then we see him having phone conversations done as an SNL skit.

Advancing the plot, Metropolis is besieged by crime, and the Planet’s star reporters deduce a master criminal with access to peculiar scientific inventions. Jimmy Olsen is played as even more of a buffoon than Clark. Perry White bellows a lot. Lois begins to pry, desperate for information about Superman. Quick identity-change scenes are interpolated as Superman steadfastly avoids Lois. Fortunately there are plenty of phone booths, but this leads Superman to be noticed because it’s fairly obvious, right? Guy in tights walking into a phone booth? This ain’t the country, buddy.

Working the crime beat, Lois is able to learn information and withhold it in order to manipulate Clark and Superman, to an extent. Once Superman’s existence is revealed, she hates him and criticizes his tights, as well as Clark’s fashion sense. It is clear that he finds personal validation in getting the scoop and headline. As Superman, he does the right thing because that comes naturally to him. Clark gets along with everybody, but he is quite a loner. He keeps getting told that he needs some friends. He protests that he has some, and even has a girlfriend back home. Lois becomes suspicious.

The relationship with Lana is basically over. She helps Clark finish moving and they promise to stay in touch, but know it’s a lie. She says she’s a small town girl, not made for the big city, and they have an adventure to prove it. She also says Clark needs friends, and says he should stay Truthful. The end of her relationship with Superman is worse, where he sees her crying, turns away and flies back to the Fortress of Solitude without saying a word.

Lois has managed to keep her sources tight enough that she can manipulate Superman into helping her smash the crime master’s ring. Independently, Clark has figured out part of the scientific gimmick used in the crimes. Unlike Lana, Lois can blackmail him into getting Superman to do something, in this case letting Lois visit the Fortress.

Between them, Clark, Lois and, er, Superman share much information, but not all. She leads him to Lex Luthor’s lair. A genius with tireless energy, Lex has only his will to command and unmatched intelligence. Alas at present he has only been able to afford to build two scientific gimmicks now – neither of which are any threat to Superman – hence his turn to crime. Even Superman is impressed by his intelligence as Luthor casually mentions solving a physics problem which we had seen Superman vexed with earlier. Luthor solved this problem after reading an article about K-Metal and speculating freely.

Luthor criticizes Superman’s tights and chews the scenery about all his ideas for time travel, power suits, and the countless amazing inventions he could produce if he only had the money. Superman suggests he try to find a cure for cancer. Luthor says there’s nothing for him in that. Superman and Lois are appalled. “It’s the American way.”

Lois is very bothered by this, but hands over the K-Metal anyway, much to Superman’s shock. She stole it from the Fortress and has been working with Luthor for some time now. She’s not evil like him, but she’s the story’s villain. Maybe Luthor fooled her with talk of reform, maybe it was just physical. Not important. She had no idea he was this bad.

However Luthor did make a mistake in his calculations, which he discovers as he starts working with K-Metal. It’s radiation/scientific blather which turns one of his other devices into a Doomsday device. It will blow up everything from here to Smallville. Luthor runs to save himself, and he’ll obviously go to jail at the end. But even Superman is helpless from the kryptonite.

Then Lighting Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy show up to save him with a hunk of lead. He did have friends after all. They fix everything, and are all bright and shiny, distinguishing them from the rather grim’n’gritty story thus far. They made him wear the tights though. There’s a change of identity scene to prove Superman and Clark are totally not the same person, as Lois does something incredibly girly that would make any man go dizzy. She also finds out Clark has already beaten her to the scoop, and thinks that maybe she doesn’t want a Superman after all.

Superman and the LSH are full of in-jokes, and wrap things up neatly as everybody watches him contact the LSH in the future from a phone booth near the Daily Planet. Through the in-jokes, we understand that the Daily Planet will be important for Truth, Justice and the American Way some time in the near-future. Before leaving, the LSH make a few references Superman doesn’t get. Superman and Lois reach an agreement. They can be friends.

Then Lana runs up and says she’s changed her mind and has already moved to the big city (perhaps filling Clark’s old gofer slot, although she no doubt has some ambition beyond that.) Superman realizes he now has to juggle both of them. Lana then implies that she knows how to get into the Fortress.

After everybody has left, Superman checks to make sure nobody’s looking, ducks in the phone booth and comes out carrying tomorrow’s headline. Cut to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and the credits.

Post-credits scene, back in the cubicle, Clark is on the phone again, talking to the LSH, as Lois *and* Lana spy on him. They ask when he’s moving to the future to join the club permanently, and he jokes that he wouldn’t join any club that would have him as a member. He hangs up, then dials another number to schedule an interview with Bruce Wayne at the Paradise Island resort.