An Impressive 3rd Man of Steel Trailer Raises Serious Questions
By now you've seen the 3rd Man of Steel trailer,
so your initial view that the film is only packed with brooding sentimentality
has been proven wrong. With an epic
score from Hans Zimmer as seen by the trailer, there were plenty of visual spectacles
for your eyes to feast on, in addition to the sentimental talking. We saw
several dynamic earth shattering explosions and the Man of Steel had plenty of
flying time combating threats we have yet to know of. To me, this trailer rivaled, if not outshone
all of the Marvel offerings planned for this year, namely Iron Man 3. The Iron
Man feature was filled with corny language and the music struck my nerve. Mandarin
telling Stark that “Today will be the first day of what’s left of your life”
and “You’ll never see me coming” fall into the territory of mundane easily. The Man of Steel trailer on the other hand, roused
my curiosity regarding how certain central elements of the Superman story will
be tackled.
1.
Is Superman going to be a journalist? How is he
going to hide his identity during the light of day?
In all the previous installments, Superman has guised himself
as the Daily Planet’s simple journalist Clark Kent. It provided him with a much needed cover when
he wasn’t working as earth’s savior. The trailer clearly shows him in open
daylight in the presence of other humans and his love interest Lois Lane. They
see his face. This isn't 1978 where Superman can just sport a goofy hair style
and wear spectacles to hide his true self. Christopher Nolan and David Goyer
are known for infusing realism into their work, as was seen with the Dark
Knight Trilogy. We must assume that Zack Snyder’s direction along with the aid
of the Dark Knight team will extend this realism to Clark Kent’s day job. How is
he going to shroud his identity? Will he even try doing it later on after
becoming Superman?
2.
Are we going to stop calling Superman “Superman?”
The last section of the trailer saw Lois Lane attempting to
come up with a name for the mysterious alien Kal-El. She was about to say
Superman before Superman himself interrupted her and said “excuse me.” I've spoken to most of my friends and cousins and the term Super carries a certain commonplace
and clichéd reputation. They didn’t think highly of him at all, quite to my disliking
given that simply by abilities and personality alone he stands above all, a God
amongst men. Yet, they were not wrong
about the word Super, it’s everywhere. Make “super” savings by shopping at this
mall, have a “super” tasty meal at this restaurant, it’s a never ending list.
Advertisers have absolutely ruined it for the superhero.
Maybe that’s why they've decided to avoid using the name. In
the Dark Knight Rises, in no instance was Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman referred to
as “Catwoman”. Refraining from using
Superman may indeed serve the masses well, choosing to persuade the young
generations oblivious to the comic book origins of Kal-El/ Superman to turn up
at the cinema. Even the film’s title “Man
of Steel” may be serving this objective already.
By any means, Snyder, Nolan and Goyer have got our
attentions. Come June 14, the answers to these queries will be revealed and let’s
hope fans and newcomers to the franchise will both be satisfied by the
decisions made.
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| No more "Super"? |
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