So, I saw this recently online: Man of Steel Teaser Trailer . What do you guys think?

Was it comics canon that Superman worked on fishing boats while traveling the world? I know I've seen it mentioned in some fanfic. I thought it was LnC canon.

One more year to go...

Really? Another "let's introduce Superman to an audience that has never ever heard of him?" type opening? It's only six years since the last one!

That reminded me a lot of the first Batman with Christian Bale...

Like he's a wanderer and kind of adrift etc...

The Dark Knight was directed by the same man who produced Man of Steel. Christopher Nolan.

I second Marcus' sentiment. In fact, I watched the trailer yesterday and almost posted a link from here to it myself, but somehow the trailer didn't seem worth it to me.

That's not to say that I won't watch the movie; I am definitely planning to do so. But I do have several misgivings about it, from the producer (Nolan is known for his darker works. It is appropriate for Batman to be dark, but NOT for Superman to be so) to the fact that much of it looks to be yet another origin story (albeit at least partly covering some "missing years"), to the voiceover that sounded all too much like Jor-El's (Marlon Brando's) "they can be a great people" speech from Superman - The Movie.

I can't say I'm thrilled about the Suit, but frankly, that's the least of my concerns.

But if I have two hopes for the movie they are that whatever changes are made for Superman are purely cosmetic; that is, that his core character remain intact, and that the movie draws enough people to ensure that future Superman movies and/or TV shows be made, as well as possibly drawing new people into the Superman polyverse.

Joy,
Lynn

I thought the contrails and the sonic boom cone were nice additions to the flying. I've never seen them before, never mentioned them in any of my stories, but they should have been there all along. I think now I'll have someone look up into the Metropolis sky and say, "Look! Is it a bird? Can't be! Birds don't pull contrails!"

I can totally see them starting over with Clark on the farm once again. His journey from farm boy to superhero is based on his life in Smallville with his parents. And his character (nice hint at some possible darkness in there, too) will be/was formed largely by his youthful experiences.

I'm interested in seeing more from this movie. Maybe it'll be better than a lot of people think it will be. Hope so, anyway.

I still want to know why there is Lord of the Rings music set to this trailer.

It's a teaser, not a full trailer, so I wouldn't expect it to be much actual footage. Just enough to pique your interest. Though it is a bit underwhelming even for a teaser. This movie is a reboot, unlike Superman Returns, so it will need to be a bit of an origin story so they can show how *this* movie is different from the others. (For heaven's sake, I hope they get rid of the "Clark is the disguise" of the other movies!)

And trailers always reuse music from other movies.

I saw a shaky mostly out-of-focus copy of the Comic Con trailer (camera phone). It looked interesting... at least, the parts that were in focus.

Contrails? They're left by water condensing out of engine exhaust, so unless Clark is breathing really fast I'm not sure why they should be there. Bullets, the tips of whips, etc. travel faster than sound and they don't leave them.

Sonic booms are a given, I think, there's no good way to move something man-sized and shaped faster than sound without them.

I was wondering about that too when I saw the preview. I'm like, don't you need an engine to have those (not knowing the technicalities as you described).

My problem though was more that there was two lines into the sky instead of just one. Where did the second one come from? His feet?

I guess if it comes from moisture, he could have gotten some if he blasted off from inside the ocean or gotten wet while going through a raincloud, but still... I think it looks weird.

That had been the one thing about the teaser that had intrigued me. I had assumed that he had a back-mounted twin-engine jet-pack. I have no idea of whether it actually is propelling him or whether he is flying under his own power and the jet-pack is a fake which he is using only to keep people from learning of his abilities.

I also assume that this incarnation of his cape is invulnerable.

Joy,
Lynn

On Hollywood.com they had a second version of the teaser trailer. This one with Jor-El's (Russell Crowe) voiceover instead of Jonathan's (Kevin Costner) voice. The pictures are the same though. The Jor-El voice-over trailer is the first one in the article. (They liked the darker version of Clark. :rolleyes: )

I'm assuming if Clark is more troubled (aka Dark Knight's Bruce), then I can't see the Clark persona being a disguise. Plus, there are so many of the new fanbase built from Smallville where Clark -- not Superman -- was the main character, so it would be just stupid (not improbable, just stupid) if they returned "Clark" to disguise status.

Double checked, Lynn, no jet pack pictured. I heard rumors that they were CGing the cape, so that would make it invulnerable.

EDIT: I just noticed on Hollywood.com's cast list they didn't mention a Jimmy! No Jimmy?!

EDIT #2: I also found a description of a trailer shown at Comic Con that isn't public. Here's the link.

Hi Virginia,

I hadn't seen a jet-pack, either, but I had figured that I just wasn't seeing it because Superman was too distant (hence the image too small) for me to see it.

Thanks for double-checking.

Joy,
Lynn

Marcus wrote:

Not quite. They're produced by water condensation, true, but it's the pressure generated against the humid air that does it. A jet or turboprop motor will do it, but so will a wingtip moving at high speed. You can see WW2 fighter planes pulling contrails from their wingtips on sharp, high-speed turns in some of the old wing camera footage, and the jet fighters used over Korea would do the same thing. The smoke trails of rockets taking off are mostly made up of combustion by-products, but some of it is contrail residue, too.

You don't see the contrail left by a bullet because it's usually not moving enough air. But spotters working with snipers who fire .50 caliber rifles will say that there's a faint contrail behind the bullet on humid days. It's one of the ways they track the bullet's path.

But I still like the contrail behind Superman. Really cool effect, along with the sonic boom.

Trailers were good, can only hope for the best. But was anybody else as disturbed as I was by the amount of mistakes in that article Virginia posted? It's like the guy who wrote it not only never learned English, but has no Superman (or generic superhero) knowledge whatsoever. "The 'S' emblem"? Really? :rolleyes:

Okay. I'm better now. That's the end of my rant.

Terry,

Thanks for that cool bit of trivia.

I like the contrails much more after that; I hope that is is just Superman causing the contrails, and not some sort of hidden jet pack.

Of course, now I'll wonder about the absence of contrails everywhere else in the Superman-verse.

Joy,
Lynn

I've shared my misgivings about MoS, but I am happy to report that I've found something that sounds promising. I saw in this article that director Zack Snyder indicated that they wanted to make Superman a character that the audience would be able to relate to. He said,
and I'm hoping that this translates into Clark being the real persona and Superman the disguise. I'm also hoping that they don't translate this into an angst-fest. At least it is appears near-certain that the movie won't be just a slug-fest, and for that I am grateful.

Joy,
Lynn