Comic-Con 2012: ‘Man of Steel’ preview

Man of Steel, the new Superman movie from director Zach Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan, causes me to feel all sorts of conflicting things.  I think that Nolan is a genius who wouldn’t attach himself to a Superman movie if he didn’t believe in what he was making, but that Snyder is kind of clueless and doesn’t know anything about superheroes or superhero movies.  Both of these things were highly evident at the Man of Steel panel this weekend at Comic-Con.

I’ve seen Snyder do panels at Comic-Con before, and in addition to being a terrible speaker (all he knows how to say is ‘awesome’ and ‘y’know’), he always comes across as someone who doesn’t really care about the properties he works on, or about the fans that he’s supposedly there for.  It’s as though the studio makes him come to Comic-Con and play nice with the nerds.  It bugs me.

Fortunately, the footage that was shown simply oozed Christopher Nolan.  It looks to be a distinctly Dark Knight-esque take on the Man of Steel, and the clips that we saw were gorgeous.  Lots of muted colors and shots of Clark walking down mountain roads, with some quick glimpses of our villain (Zod, played by Michael Shannon), and Superman being punched through buildings, thankfully free of Snyder’s trademark slow-motion.  Cavill looks to bring a grounded nobility to the character of Kal-El, although the trailer did spend a bit too much time for my liking on origin-stuff.  When are execs going to learn that we don’t want to be told the origins of these characters over and over?  Show us new adventures.

Russell Crowe plays Superman’s dad, Jor-El, which took me out of it a bit, but whatever.  His adopted father, Jonathan Kent, is played by Kevin Costner, who actually looks pretty good in the role.  It was strange to see Amy Adams as Lois Lane, but she’s a talented actress who I have faith in to bring something new to the character.

All in all, Man of Steel looks like a cool, unique take on the legend of Superman.  I’m still not totally sold on the costume, but all in all the film looks like it is going to live up to current renaissance of superhero movies.  I just wish that Nolan had been there to speak for it instead of Snyder, because I can only stand so much of being reassured that it’s going to be ‘awesome, y’know?’