Man of Steel gets a Christopher Nolan treatment.

[Dronepool]

Magic? So, I could defeat Superman by doing my famous missing thumb trick? That's weak.

You know what I mean- mystical powers/enchantment type stuff. Which was one of the reason's he was able to be hurt in Mortal Kombat Vs DC.

[Sans Agendum]

This looks retarded. First the Spider Man movie now this. They're going to try it with every super hero they can think of. The worst part is the directors don't 'get it'. Batman Begins wasn't just good because it was 'dark' and 'gritty'. It was good because it had an amazing story and was well thought out and layered. These shallow attempts to recreate the sort of magic Nolan offered with Batman are just going to disappoint. Other than that some viewers may be dull enough to think "Oh yeah, it's a darker, grittier superman! Just like the new Batman movies!". Good for them, I guess.

Nolan producing =/= Nolan directing. They're putting his name up there to grab your attention. The director is Zack Snyder, who recently brought us a CGI owl movie and the god awful Suckerpunch. Sorry, but giving Clark Kent a beard and having him hitch hike like he's The Hulk really isn't convincing me at all. And why does Superman have chem trails coming out of his feet? This looks dumb and no amount of opera singing background music and an old man narrating with cliche anecdotes is going to impress anyone with an IQ over 90 that we're in for anything close to a Batman Begins type spectacle. Dream on.

Also, so much for it being an original story. The bad guy is going to be General Zod from Superman 2. Also known as the best superman movie. So they're trying to capitalize on what has worked in the past. It's going to be a great big CGI regurgitation of ideas with a grittier atmosphere. No thanks. This reminds me of marketing schemes in the late 90's when everything went X-TREME! and badass! Only now they're making everything gritty and emo. Lame.

[Kollaps]

I have to say, I am over all this super hero fad shit in general. I know I'm going to have stones thrown at me for saying this but I really didn't like the original 'Dark Knight'.

[Celebrity Killing Spree]

Batman works as a grittier, more realistic character because he was meant to be gritty and realistic. He doesn't have powers, he's just a guy. And a fairly disturbed one. Gritty and realistic plays to the character's strengths.

However, applying this approach to other superheroes is just stupid and just robs them of their uniqueness. The new Spider-man movie was a perfect example. Peter Parker is bitten and finds that he has all of these superhuman powers and it seems like no bid deal to him because he's too busy being parkour, wearing skinny jeans and feeling sad about his parents. It's almost entirely un-amazing to him that he is a superhero and as such it feels the same to me.

[SatanBakesale]

You guys are lameeeee. I am an all out Marvel fan. But even I think this movie sounds awesome. And BTW its supposed to be a teaser not a fucking TRAILER!! Be glad it was what it was. Almost all movie teasers are just the movie logo with a voice over so STFU. Sucker Punched sucked ass due to Snyder actually writing the story. Given an actual story to follow the man is great. Look at Watchmen and 300 those turned out great.

Also stating the story is written by Christopher Nolan David S. Goyer which in my opinion have not written a single bad story. This will be the first Superman movie where he has a chance of being defeated by pure strength. I HATED Superman Returns, an superhero-action movie with absolutely no action. I do however think Snyder is a bit overrated but the dude knows how to direct an action sequence. For those of you bitching at the lame TEASER trailer there is a two minute comic con footage that is plain awesome :)

[21Faces]

"Dark" and "gritty" are just marketing buzzwords studios use to talk around a truth they dare not profane by speaking it out loud. When they discuss a darker grittier superman movie what they are really talking about is a superman film that is actually about something in the same sense Nolan's films are actually about something, as opposed to most Marvel films like the Avengers which are typically about NOTHING and have absolutely no connection to the real world audiences live in every day. These stories are told in universes of total detachment, and are consequently superficial.

When people discuss Nolan's Batman as dark and gritty, they are only identifying one component of the film's total presentation. Yes, The Dark Knight is dark and gritty- but so is another comic adaptation film: Sin City. However, most people will recognize both films are very different. Like Marvel films, Sin City embraces its source aesthetic, eschewing the real world for a hyperreal space of fantastic characters and fantastic violence. It's entertaining, but wholly unrelatable on any serious level. What sets apart the Dark Knight from other comic adaptations is not its dark grittiness, but its weight- its gravitas. THAT is what Warner Bros. is looking to bring to this new Superman film. They are looking for Nolan and Goyer to class the joint up.

Now I do agree that Zack Snyder's films are unimagininative streaks of neon vomit, however, his tired "Snyderisms:" grotesquely over saturated palettes and gratuitous slow motion nonsense are nowhere to be found. This indicates (thus far) that his worst inclinations as a director are being kept in check. And it's already been mentioned that Goyer penned the screenplay to this with input from Nolan, so that's already good reason to be at least cautiously optimistic.

As for the assertions that Batman's dark tone is incompatible with Superman, I say far from it. While I agree that Superman is a difficult character to build compelling drama around in the same way it's easier to write for the devil than for God (flaws being an essential component of drama), Superman has at least a few assets other heroes do not. On the first level we have Superman's status as a near omnipotent being, the idea of a man coming to terms with the weight of that kind of responsibility, and the isolating effect it must have on character is something we're going to see explored here in an honest way- the spiritual parallels to established Savior figures is something so obvious it needn't be spelled out. And on another level we have Supeman's status as an American icon and his embodiment of a nation's greatet values and aspirations, specifically the idea of American exceptionalism.

It is this idea of American exceptionalism we'll probably see utilized as this film's anchor point, this is indicated explicitly by the trailer's presentation which is essntially taken verbatim from Levi's jeans "Go forth" ad campaigns- generally spectacular pieces of work that deal almost exclusively in overwrought vignettes and vague populism:




So the content and presentation of the teaser reveal the film's approach: Superman as savior, and Suprman as icon, respectively. Whether or not we will be able to find a compelling human story in between those two elements remains to be seen. But the choice of words spoken by Jor-El (played by Russel Crowe) says a lot about what the filmmakers are trying to do here and it seems very promising that they're even trying to DO anything at all. The fact that they've opted for something as austere and understated as they have for an intoductory piece makes me even more cautiously optimistic. I'm now looking forward to the actual trailer with great anticipation.

[Para-Noir]

What the hell is The Lord of the Rings soundtrack doing in the trailer?

[Dronepool]

Avengers was cool and all, but it seemed like a super high budget Power Rangers film compared to a bunch of DC based films.

[ThreeEyedGod]

ok....but the chem trails. What is up with the chem trails ?

[SangreV]

Hollywood's updated approach to making new films.

Make a new film with new ideas.
Recycle and rehash the same old ideas with a new film!
Remake older films!
Remake an acclaimed European film that just came out a year ago!
Reboot a blockbuster film or series that just came out a few years ago!!!