Seems like the past few years it has been the year of Marvel comics, what with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spiderman, and of course the behemoth that was The Avengers! But this week and you could say even this whole month, belongs to DC… this Man of Steel trailer is released just mere hours before I head out to see The Dark Knight Rises!! Man oh man…
You could say I’m more of a DC girl because of my long-lasting LOVE for Superman. I have mentioned it several times on this blog how I’ve been a huge fan of the character ever since I was a wee girl, my mom even bought me a Superman costume that I often wore running around in our backyard. I even said on this post that Christopher Reeve is the one and ONLY actor I have ever written to, and I got not one but TWO autographed photos from the legend himself.
So you could understand my excitement for yet another Superman movie… starring one of my favorite Brits no less. And today, WB released TWO versions of the long-awaited teaser trailers… this one has the narration of Kevin Costner as Pa Kent:
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And this is the Russell Crowe‘s version as Jor-El which has the exact same footage:
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It’s hard to say which one I like best, I guess the Crowe’s version has a certain gravitas, a dignified tone of a powerful leader giving his words of wisdom to his son on his ultimate providence. However, Costner’s narration provides such an emotional weight to the story. I tear up listening to Pa Kent seemingly choking up as he tells his adopted son,
“You’re not just anyone… one day you have to make a choice…you have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be… whoever that man is, good character or bad… he’s gonna change the world.”
I LOVE how understated, moody and unmistakably human this trailer is… well that is until that heart-pumping sonic-boom flying sequence at the end, woo hoo!! The typical fast-cuts and slo-mo action shots that you’d expect from Zack Snyder are noticeable absent. In fact, the tone is very much Batman Begin-ish in the way the origins story is handled, and with Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David S. Goyer involved, that is promising indeed!
The music may sound familiar to most of you. It’s by Howard Shore in the LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring, specifically the Bridge of Khazad Dum scene when the fellowship lost Gandalf. It’s an incredibly emotional and heroic scene of one powerful figure laying his life to save others, so I guess it’s quite appropriate. This is a teaser after all, and we still have about a year to go yet for Hans Zimmer to compose the original music for this film.
I have to say I’m beyond optimistic for this movie. Yes I know there are naysayers out there and I get it because we haven’t got a spectacular Superman movie since, well Superman II in 1980, that’s over 3 decades ago!! As I’ve mentioned here, I believe they’ve got the right actor for the job. I guess I have known that since a decade ago!!
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So, what did you think folks?? You’re ready to see Superman fly again?
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Bring on man of steel 😀
I preferred Jor’els, reminded me of gladiator 🙂
Ha..ha.. yes, with a father like Maximus, Supes is certainly destined for greatness 😀
Oh man. That voice. No contest. Can he just narrate the whole movie? That’d be good…
Ahah, I knew you’d be Team Crowe. Methinks he should just do a multiple e-books deal 🙂
That played in front of “The Dark Knight” when I saw it last night. I was very happy to see that the look and tone is completely different from the previous Superman films as well as any Zack Snyder movies. It needs to stand on its own as its own entity, and so far, it definitely seems like it’s heading in that direction. I love the new Superman logo, too. The only thing that confuses me is why there are jet trails coming from Superman’s feet after the sonic boom (which is very cool).
Unfortunately I won’t see it in front of TDKR as there’s no trailers on the true IMAX. So I’m a happy camper to see it released online. Yes, I think so far it seems to have its own look, so far it has a great balance of grounded humanity and high-flying fantasy elements, I don’t mind the jet trails of Supes, I mean that’s what happens when he flies at the speed of light, right? 😉
Actually, that would be the speed of sound since he just made a sonic boom rather than turning into energy. Though I wonder how fast he’d have to fly in order to make the planet spin in the opposite direction.
it could be the first super hero trailer I’ve ever liked, Flixy. I feel in love with the music the first time I heard it earlier today. I already prepared a spotlight on the film for Monday at my bay 🙂 Henrylicious looks delish in the trailer and I like the touching and emotional aspect of it.
Awesome Dezzy, I’ll be sure to stop by. Yes, delish is right and I do like the emotional aspect of it.
Can’t wait for Superman once more. They did such a lukewarm job last time out, I am dying for some new blood and Zack Snyder certainly is the guy to do it. Loved 300 and Dawn of the Dead,
Hi Melissa, funny you mentioned the word ‘new blood’ as Zack’s film has been quite uhm, bloody 🙂 I certainly don’t mind a grittier version of Superman but also one that can be emotionally satisfying on top of thrilling action-wise.
I’m one of those who had mixed feelings about this project. I love the involvement of Nolan and David S. Goyer in the screeenplay but Zack Snyder has been hit and miss for me (with more miss). But this trailer is awesome. If only the ending had a hint of John William’s iconic theme score.
I had been pondering about the John Williams iconic score and whether they should keep it, but after reading some comments that argue this one should have its own score, I think I’m more open-minded about hearing something new from Hans Zimmer. We know it’ll be tough to top Williams’ work but we’ll see how much it could come close to it.
I think I enjoy the Crowe narration more myself as well. As far as the trailer goes…meh. Zack Snyder has to prove himself again after the disasters of Sucker Punch and Superman Returns was lackluster at best. Expectations are low.
I hear ya Max, well let’s hope Zack would certainly meet your expectations and then some!
“ever since I was a wee girl…” – nice to see your inner Scot coming out there Ruth. 😉
Great post though. I’m not that big on super hero stuff but I loved Superman when I was young and have to admit at being quite excited about this one. I think Snyder done a great job on Watchmen. I know it has it’s naysayers but I loved the graphic novel and thought that the film really done it justice. Hopefully that can be repeated again.
He..he.. I guess watching all those GB interviews has rubbed off on me 😉 I think both Watchmen and 300 are good, both are stylish and unique, and the fact that Nolan’s willing to collaborate with him, that’s saying something. Yes, let’s hope this will finally be THE Superman film for the 21st century!
Thanks for posting these Ruth. I am not AS excited as you are, but I am still very interested in seeing it. It’s nice to see these teasers since there were no previews at my midnight premiere!
I know you’re more a Marvel guy, T 🙂 I’ve just been waiting for the other main DC hero to shine like Batman did and I hope Nolan/Snyder combo will finally make that happen.
I’m getting my geek on again!
From this wee sneak peek, it certainly looks like no other Superman movie, cant wait! Another astonishingly handsome Brit actor is making his mark on big budget movies.
Yes indeed! And Richard is also making his mark w/ The Hobbit, let’s hope Hollywood will cast him more in the near future 😀
I definitely prefer Maximus.. oh I mean Crowe’s voice version, I always thought Costner has this annoying voice and that’s why I never bought him as a leading man.
I do love that song from Fellowship but it’s still weird to me that the marketing team decided to use it; I mean Hans Zimmer has done so many great themes that they could’ve use here and he’s the composer for this movie, not Howard Shore! I thought the teaser at the comic con was much better, they showed more of Superman and of course they used Zimmer’s great score from The Thin Red Line.
Ha..ha.. poor Costner! I didn’t think his voice is annoying, but what I like about his VO is the words being spoken, seems more personal as he raised Clark and loved him as his own, but he knew he’d have to let him go to pursue what’s been set out for him.
Yeah, that’s true that they decided to use another composer’s work for this teaser, I’d think they’d at least find something of Zimmer’s that’s as heroic.
Sorry, but as a individual really hoping for the best with MAN OF STEEL, I was greatly underwhelmed by this teaser. That said, I do like Snyder branching out of his steady-cam, zoomy, slow motion crap and going for a (to use the common comparison) TREE OF LIFE Mallick feel. So, kudos Snyder for that.
But what this teaser needed to do was make all audiences pumped for Superman to be back. For me, all this did was make me go ‘huh’ [shrug] ‘eh.’ For a movie like DKR with a large amount of people attending, it needed to basically say, ‘Yo, Superman’s back bitches, get ready for some awesomeness’, and by that I don’t mean action scenes, I mean something more interesting than Clark Kent on a fishing boat and a young Clark with his cape. We needed something more than making him human. We needed SOMETHING from the film – a quick shot or clip – that says, Kal-El is extraordinary, and this is why we should believe him.
Yeah. I realize I’m being ridiculously tough for a TEASER trailer. But every part of marketing counts…
Hi Andy! I like your enthusiasm man, even if we don’t see eye to eye I see where you’re coming from. As you said, it’s just a TEASER and I think they probably still don’t have a lot of the cool flying sequences perfected yet to show, so they chose to focus on setting the tone for the movie which seems to be in the vein of Batman Begins. Seems like a few of the comic book adaptations these days are focusing on the ‘humanity’ side instead of the costumed-superhero persona and I think we can expect that in Man of Steel. But that said, I think we will see some of that ‘awesomeness’ we’re all hoping for, that ‘woo hoo’ type of rousing entertainment like when the chopper rescue in the first Superman and the plane-rescue one in Superman Returns, I certainly hope they’d have at least a couple of such thrilling scenes.
As you can see, I’m highly optimistic about this one! 😀
By God, you would not believe how much I was hoping this film would knock my socks off. I desperately wanted to erase the pain of the disappointment of Superman Returns.
Alas, this trailer (I saw the Costner one at TDKR last week) left me with only more disappointment. This looks more like Superman Begins than Man of Steel. If you’re gonna make a film about a dude who can fly, wears his underwear on the outside and can see through ladies clothing, at least show more than one shot of this happening.
As an equally massive fan of Superman (I still have 20 years of comics in my parents back garage) I was left feeling “meh”. Sorry Ruth. Snyder and Co are gonna have to do a lot better than this.
Oh Rodney, I hope you won’t give up just yet. It’s only a teaser, we still have a year to go yet. I think from the bootleg version I saw that was shown at Comic-con, there are more bombastic action scenes that are less ’emotive’ than this, so I’m sure future trailers will show that. As a fellow Superman fan, I hope you don’t give up on him just yet man… let’s hope Snyder & co. do the Kryptonian hero justice and please die hard fans like us. At the very least, they done right with the casting, don’t you agree?
Hi, Ruth and company:
I’m confused and a bit underwhelmed.
Russell Crowe has the better of the two trailers, but isn’t Kansas flat and mostly landlocked? The trailer makes it look like Clark Kent was raised in Washington state up by the Canadian border.
Not getting young Clark’s hitch hiking vibe, either. Reminds me a lot/too much of Bruce Wayne in ‘Batman Begins’.
And where exactly is Clark going to change into his Superman regalia, since phone booths are non existent, nowadays?
Ha..ha.. such astute observation there Jack, well maybe in the universe where Krypton exists, Kansas is a hilly state 😀 I think the hitchhiking is when he’s working as an Alaskan fisherman, he probably doesn’t know he could fly just yet.
Good question about the phone booth thing, well maybe he needs to move to London instead as there are still a lot of those iconic red phone booths! 🙂
Hi, Ruth!
Clark would get lost using the tube system in London. Trains would be okay, with the occasional side trip to Hogwart’s. And I’ve my doubts that a darker, more soulful Clark wouldn’t enter the Doctor’s TARDIS by mistake one dark and stormy night.
Talk about a clash of egos! 🙂
‘The Man of Steel’ doesn’t sound like my cup of tea, but I’ve a feeling you’ll have a ball watching it. I just hope Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor is up to the task and worthy of such a beloved nemesis.
Looks like a great movie to look forward. you must’ve anticipated this movie so much. Costner’s narration in addition makes it even wonderful.
Yes I have Andina, I’ve been a fan of Henry for some time. Yeah, I like the Costner’s VO version better even though Crowe’s got that sexy, deep voice 🙂
Good job Zack Snyder. He really got me intrigued with this and you know I was one of the “naysayers” before this lol 😉 Happy you melted into a puddle of goo watching this ah! :p
Yay! Glad that they actually ‘converted’ you w/ this teaser. He..he.. yes well I think the combo of Superman and Henry Cavill definitely has that effect on me, Castor.
It has potential. I love when they mentioned Zack Snyder, they mention 300 and Watchmen. No Sucker Punch to be found :D. It’s all good!
Anyway, Nolan may have a bit of sway to make sure they do justice to the franchise.
Ha..ha.. well, I think it’s wise that Sucker Punch is not mentioned 🙂 Yeah, I just hope Nolan doesn’t cram too many darn plot into Man of Steel like in TDKR though.
An impressive trailer. I wonder if this is a true indication of the film’s style, I hope it is.
I hope so too!
Nice teasers. I have a good feeling about the movie. My favorite was Costner’s.
Mine too! We’re like-minded, Fernando 🙂
Hi Ruth, I definitely agree with your statement. This month belongs to DC Comics. For the last couple of years, it’s been Batman who has represented them to the fullest, but after seeing this trailer, I’m definitely excited to see Superman fly again. Plus, my excitement just continues to grow for a Justice League film. I really hope that it happens, even if a film is devoted to each one of the other characters including Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. It’s only fair that DC Comics do this to stay on the same level as Marvel Comics, even though I will always root for DC!
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