This is the third trailer for the new Superman movie.
It doesn’t do much to convince me it will be good.
First, I didn’t like Watchmen, and while I enjoyed 300 - it wasn’t a great movie either. So Zack Snyder doesn’t fill me with confidence.
Second, these trailers focus so much on a somber mood and not nearly enough on fun action. Superheroes are action based characters. They should sell me on the fun action. Build that around fun character moments. The mood is the last thing I need to be shown. And if I had to pick a mood for Superman it’d be uplifting and exciting.
Third, I don’t think Zod is a great pick for a first Superman villain. Recently DC Comics has rebooted Superman’s origin. In fact they did it twice. Once in a book called Superman: Earth One and another time in the regular comics (Action Comics and Superman). But in both they have set Superman up as a hero that people are nervous about, unsure about, maybe a little scared of. I assume to make him grittier or cooler.
But for me Superman in the hero everyone loves. The guy who shows up and makes up feels safe. When things get bad, Superman is there. He doesn’t wear a mask. He is friendly. He was raised in middle America by two very nice, smart people. He has good values and he wears that on his sleeve.
Maybe he’ll be portrayed like that in the movie. I’m doubtful because of Zod.
Zod is another Kryptonian who hates Superman’s father (Jor-El) and therefore hates Superman. He wants revenge on Superman.
So if Superman shows up and the first major problem that he deals with is Zod… a problem that largely only exists to kill Superman… Superman creates more problems then he helps. That’s not someone who would make the people of Metropolis feel safe.
Even if Zod is intent on conquering Earth and not on getting revenge against Superman, it still comes off as Superman fighting his own species. They feel like they arrived together to the public.
If Zod shows up after Superman has been around (say in a sequel) then people would have learned to love Superman already. He’d have saved them from multiple threats, crime, disasters and more. And he’d have done that for a while. IN that scenario Zod would shake people’s belief and that adds a challenge for Superman to overcome, but in the end Superman can prove, as everyone used to believe, that he is the real deal.
Even though I talked a lot about that third point, the second point is more important. If the film is fun and exciting I’ll like it. I can get past a different Superman if it’s otherwise good. But I’d be more hopeful if the movie looked like it understood Superman.
But then I am not even sure the comics understand him anymore so why should the movie studios.
