David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

  • Greg Miller

    Am I the only one that wishes they’d start using original music in trailers? Because it’s kind of annoying. I see Superman, but I hear Gladiator. And yes, I know it’s not a new thing.

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/FZDD36MBDZFXHR5WLN74L3O6ZE Davy Jones

      Yes! I see Star Trek Into Darkness, but I hear Prometheus. Use some new tracks already.

      • blissfulight

        I see Superman, but I see Superman.  Use some new material already.  

    • Boundegar

      The music probably hasn’t been recorded yet – maybe it hasn’t even been scored.  All trailers use stock “trailer music,” and if you watch enough you’ll begin to recognize it.

  • Rider

    Holy orange and teal colored lens flares Batman!

  • http://twitter.com/adamlcox Adam L. Cox

    You know, I’m not advocating a return to the Silly Sixties or anything, but why does it have to be SO serious?  This makes The Godfather look like a romantic comedy.

  • knoxblox

    Well, if that’s Michael Shannon I saw, I’m willing to give it a try.

  • Brainspore

    He’s got some pretty amazing superpowers, but the one that always impressed me the most was how the heck he hides that giant cape under an ordinary business shirt.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Scott/100001870517210 Jason Scott

    Bottom Line:  Humans are getting pretty dang good at making superhero movies.   

  • PaulMorel

    Heroes is coming back?! Yay!

    Oh wait, it’s just a trailer that looks & sounds exactly like Heroes for the first 90 seconds … sigh.

    Also, why can’t DC make a superman costume that is modern and doesn’t look completely ridiculous? Here’s a hint: get rid of the cape, stop it with the stupid leather S, and change the pale blue to a dark blue.

    Sigh … this movie won’t be good.

    • Brainspore

      Here’s a hint: get rid of the cape, stop it with the stupid leather S, and change the pale blue to a dark blue.

      I never look back, dahling. It distracts from the now.

    • Boundegar

      I’d like to know why Superman needs a kevlar suit.  I mean, isn’t he already bulletproof?  Wasn’t he safe enough in his spandex days?  It’s not like he’s Batman.

      • Brainspore

        Did you catch the part of the trailer where his non-super, terrestrial shirt is burning off his body in a fire?

        He doesn’t need a super-sturdy uniform to stay safe. He needs one just to stay clothed.

      • jimh

        I really hate the tendency these days of making every “costume” fabric high tech kevlar/patterned. It’s just adding unnecessary visual noise.Like adding the extra lines/relief to the “S” to make it more stylized.

        • Damian Barajas

          I couldn’t agree with you more, the last “S” on the trailer with all the lines on it reminds me of “cholo” grafitti!

  • cbm

    How does Superman shave, anyway?

    • Brainspore
      • Jorpho

         They even used that once on “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”.

    • Antinous / Moderator
    • Repurposed

      Batman: “He probably had his PARENTS to show him…*sob*” /runs away

    • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

      During that oh so stupid Electric Superman time he tried to shave by conducting a piece of metal near his face and blew himself across his apartment. Lois was not happy.

  • http://twitter.com/pickledbeatnik pickledbeatnik

    I’ll be sipping wine at home during both this and next year’s inevitable retelling (probably entitled “Superman: Again” because they will run out of ideas. But they’ll milk them anyway. Fucking fanboys! Stop going to the movies!) and watching Gilliam’s next hit on my television or whatever. Anyway, I’m really, really sick of these things. I never thought anything could do this, but comic book movies have exceeded the zombie meme in over-saturation of the entertainment industry.

    • http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter

      Amen to that. No more reboots, remakes, or superhero movies. New ideas please!

      • Ramone

        There are plenty of new ideas out there. Unfortunately, complaining about the supposed lack of them on a comic book film post is not one of them.

    • annoyingmouse

      Something to remember in this particular example is that one of the main reasons it has been made is so Warner Bros aren’t sued by the Siegel family.  What would you rather: Warner Bros puts out some utter rubbish (I’m looking at you Superman IV: Nuclear Man vs Whatever), they reboot it Man of Dark Knight Steel style or they accept defeat and give money to the a group of people who encourage creativity by suing people for not making money for them even though they didn’t actually create anything themselves? http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118005806

  • PaulMorel

    To continue my previous comment:

    Why is DC so attached to Superman’s traditional look? The light blue with bright red underwear & boots? (ignoring, for a moment, the ludicrous leather S)

    Bryan Singer’s black leather X-Men costumes were stupid and generic, but they were better than trying to make comic book costumes designed 20-50 years ago work on the big screen in 2012.

    I give credit to Marvel & co. for letting the comic book canon fall to the wayside on trivial issues like costumes. I don’t know why DC is clinging to the ridiculously outdated Superman look.

    (and, incidentally, I DID collect comic books when I was little … I still have some of the original Age of Supermen issues)

    • Brainspore

      Why is DC so attached to Superman’s traditional look?

      Because everybody hated the “New 52″ redesign (collar? c’mon!), and there’s only so much you can change before “Superman” isn’t Superman anymore.

      Even Batman has a lot of non-negotiable aspects to his costume. It doesn’t matter if you’re Adam West in spandex or Christian Bale: if you’re gonna play Batman that means dark colors, a cape, a cowl with little pointy ears that covers the top of the face, a bat logo on the chest, boots, gloves with those little pointy parts on the gauntlets, and a utility belt.

      • jimh

        Can’t agree more. If it’s going to be Superman, there are certain visual cues you have to include. I actually think the darkening of the entire color scheme is hurting it versus helping. Not that they couldn’t just invent a new character. But that would be less bankable. And involve… more creativity.

    • Sigmund_Jung

      I was thinking something like that. The trailer looks wonderful and the human aspect of it makes it somewhat credible. Until the guy puts on the blue leggings and cape — no to mention the S on the chest and… red underwear. This just disconnects it too much from real life (think of the Seattle “super hero” and you see how ridiculous it is for someone to put such disguise).

      Unless they can relate the uniform to some Krypton garments — as if someone would wear togas today in reference to some ancient Roman past. I hope they do that.

      The black X-Men uniform was a great solution, and they even make a joke about it when Wolverine complaints and someone says “what did you expect, yellow spandex”? 

      • http://twitter.com/puppetdark puppethead

        Actually from the trailer, at about 1:20:

        Voiceover: You have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be, Clark.

        As we see Superman in his blue tights and red underwear for the first time…

        • Sigmund_Jung

          Does not compute… so he decides to wear his underwear on the outside and call himself “super”? Kind of Jersey-Shoreist.

          I do expect all this to be explained in the movie and I am giving them the benefit of doubt. I wouldn’t if this was one of the Avengers movies, where everything is cartoonish.

      • garyg2

         Funnily enough Superman 3 was on tv Sunday afternoon, thought Christopher Reeve looked really good as ‘bad’ Superman. Messy hair, darker costume, red bits a deep crimson. Image ruined when he got good again and the day-glo colours returned…

    • miasm

      What does the superman wear?
      Whatever the hell he wants.

    • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

      having them trying to update it would probably end up looking like Connor Kent

  • snagglepuss

    Looks interesting. The last thing I want is a brainless slug-out / catastrophest (TM). The best Supes stories are always WHY he does what he does, instead of HOW he does it – A “normal” guy, but with the powers of a god.
    Also nice to see a touch of the Alan Moore-ish expectation of how the real world would react to somebody like Superman. I think Moore was correct when he suggested that a lot of folks would be TERRIFIED of a being that looked like us but that could push the Earth out of it’s orbit and into the sun – And the only thing stopping him from doing that was his plain-folks Kansas upbringing.

    • http://twitter.com/spockosbrain Spocko

      Exactly. Did you read the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay? A big part of the book is developing the Origin story of their herio what makes him who he is? (Of course I don’t think he had super powers just skill and determination.)

      In Smallville I liked the stories that answered questions like: 
      “How do you deal with this kind of power? What keeps you grounded? (so to speak)
      If you could do almost anything? What would you do? Why use your powers to protect and save vs. something else?

      I think that putting Clark on a Farm as the place of “wholesomeness” so that when he goes to to the big bad city it ties in tothe myth Americans have of themselves. It is also a myth that the right wing and main stream media pushes. The politicians, and media pundits who advise them, are always talking about appealing to “the Heatland” as if they are the only “true” Americans. Yet is the world view of the heartland still so wonderful?  I’d like to think so, but I find many conservative views out of the Midwest to be cruel and selfish and in some cases racist.  What if Clark’s parents were hard core right wing conservatives? What values might they put into their son? 
      It’s not your job to take care of people, Clark.
      Your power can be used to create “wealth” and if people don’t appreciate all you do for them, “Go Galt”

  • UnderachievingSheep

    I don’t know why (maybe the music? maybe the tone of the narration?) but I got Malick vibes from this trailer. 

    Which, in any case, can we have a Malick directed Superman? It’d be superhero to beat all superhero movies…

    • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

      I came here to say Superman: Tree of Life

      • jimh

        Yeah! Maybe we can get a bald Sean Penn in it as Luthor, wearing Armani, with no dialogue.

  • http://www.disoriented.net/ angusm

    Is he kneeling before Zod at 1:53? Because if there’s one thing I like in my Superman movies, it’s a bit of kneeling before Zod.

    • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

      Could be Brainiac too

  • Lucas Brinkman

    There isn’t red underwear with this costume. They do a good job of hiding it in the whole trailer.

    • http://twitter.com/samthepea Sam Pourasghar

       What, his schlong?

  • skeptacally

    I totally didn’t recognize him without the glasses.

  • http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

    That score sounds awful. Hopefully it’s not an overall representation. 

  • boing601pi9

    Good: Ma Kent helping young Clark deal with sensory overload. I like seeing this kind of exploration of the practical aspects of raising a superhuman.

    Less good: Pa Kent saying that “maybe” Clark should have let a busload of kids die. The Pa Kent I know would never think self-interest could trump the lives of others. I could see him saying “no, of course not” while not having a clear answer for what Clark should have done differently, but a “maybe” just feels… wrong.

    Is it strange that I have such an immediate, visceral reaction to one word from a fictional character?

    • http://twitter.com/spockosbrain Spocko

      No. That is the power of the development of the character of Pa Kent over decades. People always talk about the superhero but in this mythology, the values of the Kents are very important to the development of Superman.  Just like Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben. It wasn’t JUST that he said it, it was who he was his entire life that made it matter (that and the fact that it was driven home as an object lesson like a sledge hammer over and over.) 

      A lot of people look to Hero myth (and superhero myths) for a reason, they want some moral clarity. Does it make Pa Kent less of a moral person? We won’t know until we see the whole story. Maybe that “maybe” is something that is really out of character and he comes back later and talks about how best to use his power in a stealth way.  I’m thinking about Dexter’s dad and the way he gave him a “code” one part of the code is “don’t get caught” So maybe Dexter and superman have something in common. 

      They are both adopted.
      They survived a trama as children
      Their father gave them a code to deal with their power, “Only go after bad people, Don’t get caught” 
      Dexter of course kills and Superman doesn’t but they both use their powers for “good”as a way to help others.

      Wow. I’ll have to think about this some more. Scary parallels! 

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Busuttil/100000717312854 Michael Busuttil

      I suspect in the film that’s a bigger conversation (the scene fades out straight away in the trailer, so I can’t be sure). I buy Pa Kent saying “maybe”, though, as long as he follows it up with “Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know.” 

      He should be struggling – his son has a gift, and he can help people, but at the same time exposing that gift is going to make people afraid of him, and it’s going to make life very very hard for young Clark. If this is the first time he’s thinking about it, I want him to struggle before he comes down on the side of “no, you have to help them, no matter what”.

  • pjcamp

    Why, exactly, does Superman need body armor?

    • Antinous / Moderator

      To protect his credit cards, condoms, weed…

      • http://billmcgonigle.com bill_mcgonigle

         … modesty.

      • michaelismichael

        Could Superman get stoned?

        There’s an argument for not having superpowers.

        • Brainspore

          Ever see Supes after doing a couple lines of white K?

      • pjcamp

         Surely it would use its pocketses.

  • http://twitter.com/samthepea Sam Pourasghar

    I hope he kicks some arse and doesn’t just get trounced by thugs like in Superman Returns, he stops a bullet with his eyeball and doesn’t even throw a punch. I know he’s supposed to be good, and a punch from him would obliterate anyone into mush, but I don’t just wanna see him catching trains and planes and boats and stuff. Kill stuff, Superman! Or at least smash it up lots. Fight some space dude in black pyjamas or something.

  • Conan Librarian

    I honestly miss the days when realism was left behind in the ‘real world’, trying to add ‘realism’ to a comic book character seems…out of character. I guess thats why I loved the Avengers so much, Joss isn’t so hung up on adding gunmetal shading and dirt to every frame.

  • Baldhead

    Every trailer i see makes me want to watch this less.

  • Frank Diekman

    Well, now we have a movie with beardy Superman. Now how about a movie with mullet Superman?