Slightly ruined by it all sounding very 'Lord of the Rings death of Gandalf'.

What did you think of the trailer? Apologies if a thread has already been posted about this. It looks like they're making it darker, which I like. I want all superhero films to be like Nolan's Batman trilogy now, so I'm happy he's involved (although in a minor way) in this.

Sorry, don't know how to play this video :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jKWJZsjm5U

In a semi-related note; I saw the new Spiderman the other day and it was awful. It was like Twilight. Hated it.

For me, that trailer doesn't make the movie seem fun to watch.

Much like how Echoman's posts make him seem like a guy who is not fun to hang out with. Good thing we know better.

hoooooooo

not interested at all, especially after the last one

The last one was an okay movie, but definitely not a great movie. After seeing the cast of this movie, as well as the creative team behind it, I have high hopes. Also, there is another version of the trailer where Russel Crowe provides the monologue.

Looks awesome. With Snyder directing and Nolan producing it should be great.

It is the exact same song.

Eh, outside of Batman I find most of DC's superheroes to be kinda lame.

So does everyone else.

Take THAT Baconfish. YOU ARE NOT UNIQUE!

At least in the case of Superman, I think the character is supposed to be "lame". Perhaps I am poor at identifying humor, but I heard a Superman insider claim that he was some sort of Jewish metaphor, and that his name was really Supermann. Apparently Supermann also failed his eye exam because he was too Jewish, with his thick glasses and all.

Finally, a trailer that doesn't show off 80% of the movie's good parts.

Yeah but sadly it also failed to generate any excitement.

It's not a trailer, it's a teaser.

Even Elongated Man?!!!!!!??!

I think it is a great teaser trailer. The Comic Con trailer was great as well.

Needs more John Williams music.

There's actually two trailers, one for each of Superman's daddies. Which is an interesting gimmick, I must say.
Also, Jor El's version pretty clearly outlines him as an actual superman, the ubermensch, which I dunno how to feel about.

-But it's Snyder, all his movies have had great trailers and then went on to be at least fun to watch, so I'm probably gonna see this one either way.

I've heard that the Comic Con trailer was great. I think this is an outstanding teaser. Then again, I love Superman, so I'm seeing this on opening day come hell or high water.

I think Superman always ends up being lame because he's so arbitrarily powerful that it takes a dumb, horribly contrived plot to create any tension.

The only way I can see a Superman story being any good is if it's more of a personal struggle with the implications of such great power. Any villain would have to be something like the joker who can't be defeated by simply beating him up or killing him, and can make Superman's physical power irrelevant or even a weakness. Unfortunately, Superman is so powerful that it would be a lot harder to do this with him than it was to do with Batman.

The first part of your post begs for the realization that that Supermann is the Messiah, and that the unfathomable power of evil in the world that could possibly counter Supermann's strength was the Nazis:



You can listen to Terry's complete interview with Supermann biographer Larry Tye here:
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/18/155278330/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-new-superman-bio

Or you can just make him less powerful. Still have all the goods, but more post-crisis than pre-crisis. Has to psych himself up before catching a jumbo jet, can't fly in space due to no air, gets knocked about by seriously powerful weaponry but can still shrug off small-arms fire.

-The good thing about Superman's rogues gallery is so many of them actually can challenge him physically. Livewire and Kryptonite Man both strike his weak spots, Doomsday and Bizarro are physical matches for him, Darkseid and Lex Luthor can overwhelm him mentally, emotionally, and physically (if Lex puts his mind to it).

So, yeah, the villain is General Zod, so there's that. He's essentially Superman, but the former leader of Krypton's army, and a megalomaniac. So there's no real problem with him being a significant threat to Superman, or Earth.

What makes Superman interesting is not his struggle with villains, though. What makes him so great is his struggle to find his place as the role model for all mankind. Superman isn't just about fighting villains. He's about being a symbol for all that is good in the world. Superman isn't about fighting. Superman is about saving people, whether it's from a villain, a natural disaster, or their own nature. Superman represents what mankind could be in terms of personality. He is purely and totally good in every way, yet holds a massive degree of admiration for mankind, even with our flaws. He wants to be more like us, even though it is us who should be more like him.

That is what sets him apart from all other superheroes. He doesn't do what he does because of revenge, or because of a childhood tragedy. Superman does what he does because it is simply in his nature to do so. I find it incredibly exciting that they seem to be taking a path where he has been roaming directionless about the country working random jobs because there is nothing in the world that actually interests him. We always seem to find Superman when he's already Superman. Granted, he has been Superman since birth, but not in the way that we identify him as Superman. It will be a nice change of pace to see a superhero find his satisfaction in doing his superhero stuff just because doing the right thing just feels right to him. No revenge, no personality disorders. Just a guy with superpowers following his nature.

Also, the fact that he is so good by nature is his weakness. He believes in the essential decency of mankind, and that has proven to be a flaw more than a few times. Don't look at it as so literal. Just because he can't be hurt by bullets or explosions doesn't mean he can't be hurt. When we do awful things in spite of the example he has set for us, it hurts Superman. It has made him want to give up on us more than once, but he never really has. The real villain of the world of Superman could be identified as either humanity, or his unyielding faith in us.

Again, why do I feel like I'm reading the Tanakh.

Because if you don't understand that Superman represents the messiah there is something wrong with your brain?

Everything is right with your brain, Antony, because if you replace "Superman" with "God" in your post, it would seem you are in agreement with this theory.

If you don't think he is the messiah/is based on the Torah, it just means you won't be tickling my odd sense of humor.

Oh, I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. He is completely messianic. I'm saying that if you don't think he is, there's something wrong with you. It's really obvious.

Unfortunately, most people look at Superman and say "lol faster than a speeding bullet more powerful than a locomotive laser eyes frost breath x-ray vision bla bla bla no one can beat him in a fight". Which is not what Superman is about. At all.

I might actually be interested in seeing this now that I'm fascinated by this whole analogy....

In my religions class (at a real college, and no I'm not a real Reverend) we talked a lot about the isomorphism between myth and religion. Perhaps the same idea applies to superheros. I think it is also very interesting to look at the creator of Batman/Superman/what have you and imagine his motivations/projections for making the hero a certain way.

I'm hoping they delve into the deeper aspects of what Superman is all about in this movie. I know Zack Snyder is capable of understanding source material, because he's insanely faithful to it with the exception of when it would be completely ridiculous on-screen, in which case he comes up with something that actually makes more sense.


Yes, I'm talking about the ending of Watchmen. Giant squid monsters are ****ing stupid.

Somehow I feel that the DC Superman comics I read as a young kid in the early 90's were quite a bit removed from the original idea of superman. You know, the one's where they had him die, and then replace him with a bunch of phony supermen?

You know, up until it was all retconned by the new 52, I think the sliding timescale had compressed the death of superman so bad that he really did die and then rise three days later.

-And yes, you're correct, the 90s kinda sucked for Superheroes. But there were some good bits, too.

The thing with all these DCs and Marvel Brothers stuff is that I've never been interested in following the actual continuities because they just keep rebooting it every once in a while, usually after people get mad or they've realized that they've just dished out crap for a while (or always). Yeah, I know, "lol it's fiction what do u care, N3RDGAYMERR" (besides, it's King of the N3rds. . . Gaymerr).

But at any rate, there are just stuff related to these mythos that are still interesting, amusing, hilarious or sickening enough to get my attention. I watched Smallville up to the 7th or 8th season and up to the 4th (or so) I thought it was cheesy but entertaining fun (after that, meh). It was always a great moment when things were going wrong, Clark was incapacitated by kryptonite, but suddenly he got rid of it and then used super-speed to go wherever the trouble was brewing and punch the villain's lights out.

I thought all the Superman references in Seinfeld were quite hilarious to me since I knew what they were referring to despite not reading several decades of superdickery. This of course culminated in those great American Express 'Seinfeld & Superman talk about nothing' shorts in 2004. So I guess I find Superman himself not that interesting (lulzy at times i.e. Smallville) but all the clever(?) references to his stuff instead. Huh. On a similar note, I thought Superman Returns had some neat stuff (WRONG!) but overall it was very lacking, so I hope this new film will at least be as enjoyable as the first two films without getting into the territory where even I'm like "hey, this isn't supposed to happen in Superman!".

Here's my problem with Superman Returns: He doesn't really do much superman-ing. He stops a back robbery, and solves a few minor disasters mostly off-screen, and catches the airplane, that was cool, but that's like five minutes out of the movie. The rest of the time he's mopey, and he flies around but does nothing, and he has a creepy relationship with Lois that's the result of making it a sequel to the old movies that didn't need to happen. I wanna see superman fight crime and stop disasters in a Superman movie, dammit. Superhero movies need to feature the characters doing heroic things in order for them to work. It's to the point that frankly, Jon Peters was right, Superman Returns needed a giant spider.

-This upcoming one is going to feature Zod as the villain, meaning we'll at least see him fighting a proper supervillain. So that's good.

Jon Peters has never been right. Ever.

Wild Wild West is a masterpiece.

The problem with Superman Returns is it's boring. There aren't enough action set pieces and besides Kevin Spacey, the main cast doesn't have the force of personality to make dead air interesting. I don't care about the mythological overtones of Superman or the great personal torture he goes through at not being able to reconcile his otherworldly power with his human life, these cannot carry a 2 hour movie on their own merits. You need a good actor, or punchy dialogue, or, since I frankly don't have faith that Warner Brothers (or really, any film company) can just pull out a fantastic writer and cast combo, at least good action.

-I've not seen Henry Cavill(?) in anything, and I don't know who wrote this, so I have to put my faith in this movie in the hands of Zack Snyder's action direction, which I personally am a fan of but am fully aware not everyone is.

Let's all take a minute to enjoy the theme song!

Superman Returns was pretty weak, but I thought Clark's half-human son was an interesting spin.

Very well said.