Perhaps it's a coincidence that we start hearing rumor's on the latest installment of the Superman saga while The Avengers is still hot on the minds of moviegoer's around the world, or maybe the blue and red one was feeling underappreciated. Whatever the reason may be the effect on me is the same...the nerd fire has been stoked. Two weeks ago during PDC Live Travis and I discussed what the success of Marvel's more lighthearted colorful comic heroes means to the future of the genre. Is the American movie going audience done with doom and gloom for now? Will I be able to go a few months without having to say a new movie is going to be darker and grittier? We know that the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises will likely be the most depressing (but still awesome) entry in the series, but will DC alter the tone for future films...like next years Man of Steel?
I honestly wasn't sure, brooding Superman has never been attempted before theatrically. Zack Snyder directing made me think maybe this was going to be the direction as Snyder is not known for feel good films...hell even the animated Owl movie had a serious tone to it. While this is to be taken with a grain of salt we do have our first take on actual footage from the film. An anonymous poster on IMDB claiming to be an effects artist who was in attendance at an event where WETA, the FX studio handling the movie, unveiled a pair of unfinished clips from the film. Here's what he had to say:
I'm a visual effects supervisor for the upcoming film After.Earth, the M. Night picture. I've also done work on Avatar, Iron Man, and Sin City. I'm on IMDb. I'll admit I check my own page from time to time. It feels good. I frequent this board often, I'm a huge comic book fan (as shown by the movies I've worked on). Last night at a VFX conference there was a sizzle reel shown by Weta. In this sizzle reel there were two beta level(most likely from a trailer) clips shown. One only about 6 seconds long, the other much longer. The former was Clark Kent grabbing a truck with a crying man inside of it while flying through the middle of a tornado. It looked incredible. Henry Cavill can fly, and he can hold a truck in one arm. Zack Snyder brings his usual visual flair, but somehow is still unlike anything he has made before. It felt like a Superman comic. Real heroism. The longer clip was even more stunning, but the more I think about it, slightly concerning. The clip consisted of Superman in full costume in a verbal argument with Zod in the center of Smallville with Christopher Meloni yells at them through a megaphone next to a tank. Meloni warns them he will fire if they do not surrender. While he says this Zod sizes Superman up. Shannon looks evil as he can be. Bone chilling even. And is DEFINITELY sporting enhanced muscle. Cavill's Superman is a wonderful sight to behold in motion. Cavill's pure size makes him the most believable Superman to date. Zod speaks in Kryptonian "Do you know your native tongue, Kal-el?" Superman looks stunned, and responds in English, "Who are you?" (there isn't enough Superman dialogue to judge Cavill's performance fairly, but I'd say he did well. Nothing spectacular from this clip.) Meloni curses, then into a walkie talkie orders the tank to fire. Superman hears this and turns to the tank. Zod takes this opportunity to sucker punch Superman(in Zack Snyder slow-then-fast-mo) then when the tank fires Superman rushes in front of Zod, despite the punch and catches the exploding missile near his stomach. The flames ripple around him, hit his face, his cape, his eyes. The shrapnel hits him and bounces off. The same happens to Zod to a lesser extent. Meloni's shocked expression when they remain standing, silhouettes in a cloud of smoke, ends the clip. It was incredible, it really was. And absolutely visually stunning, but my qualm is its typical Zack Snyder. It doesn't look glossy like his films do. It instead has a more clean cut, colorful look. Like Thor, or Iron Man. But it is the same slow-mo styling that people expect from him. Maybe it just happens in this one scene, but it happens twice. Makes me a bit hesitant, despite the fact it looks phenomenal.I'm easily excitable, I'll admit that, but should this be true it'll have my faith and optimism for the movie. Not only do I like how he says that Henry Cavill actually looks like a superhuman, but mainly because it would appear that Snyder has found a hybrid theme for the film giving the bright fun look of recent Marvel films while maintaining the serious face that has become DC comics in film (Green Lantern doesn't count). In short, it will feel like Superman while maintaining the ability to integrate with other DC properties if a Justice League movie is attempted. The icing on the cake is definitely the bit where the tipster notes that it doesn't look, for the most part, like typical Zack Snyder. Keep the slo-mo shots..they work, they're your fingerprint, but you have to change up a little!
Man of Steel comes to theaters June 14th, 2013
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