DC and Warner Bros. have released the first trailer Superman this morning and it’s great. James Gunn appears to be giving the DC Universe a solid new direction with the first film under the new DCU banner.

David Corenswet looks both a muscular man of steel and a bumbling Clark Kent in his ill-fitting suit and thick-rimmed glasses. As much as I’m a Henry Cavill fan, I think Corenswet fills out Superman’s big red boots well, even if the suit is a little more controversial.

Here is the trailer:

First, let’s talk about what works in this trailer:

• The cast is on point. Corenswet is perfect as a younger, less chiseled and less severe version of Superman. Again, Cavill was great in the role, but he was – like everyone else in the Snyderverse – brought down by Zack Snyder’s dour filmmaking. Rachel Brosnahan is a wonderful choice for Lois Lane. I love Amy Adams, but she never quite fit the role. The always wonderful Nicholas Hoult, who won me over The great, should stand out from the crowd as arch-villain Lex Luthor, head of Lexcorp – er, Luthorcorp. Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner haircut is also one for the books.
• I like the brief moments with Lois Lane and Superman/Clark Kent. It looks like she’ll find out they’re one and the same in this movie and we’ll get a good romance, even a few kisses on the fly.
• Krypto the super dog is clearly the star of the show. “Take me home, Krypto” is the only line of dialogue here and it’s absolutely perfect. Crypto will be the marketing darling for this film. I think even the critics of this trailer would agree.
• I love watching Superman save people. There’s a lot of emphasis on hope, compassion, and kindness in this trailer, even though it’s just a “teaser” trailer that doesn’t reveal much of the story. A nice touch is also the little boy who says “Superman” almost like a prayer while the war rages around him.
• All of this points to a more serious Superman film. Less dark, more hopeful, more sincere, but not necessarily filled with the typical James Gunn stupidity. It’s difficult to get that tone right. Obviously we don’t have enough here to keep going, but I’m optimistic. Other than that, it’s clearly a film with a lot of action, fighting, violence, etc. It’s rather darker than I expected.
• The soundtrack is really reminiscent of the old John Williams score. I like the electric guitar/orchestra hybrid they have.

There are two things in the trailer that I’m not a big fan of. One worries me, the other I just don’t like.

I’m worried about the sheer number of characters, and especially super characters, that we’re introduced to in this teaser. I’m not sure we should have a large ensemble cast in the first DC reboot, hopefully more focused on Superman and Lex Luthor. But we have Guy Gardner here, a kind of kaiju, Hawkgirl and more, and that’s without seeing Supergirl.

More worrying is the cinematography. There are moments where it looks great and others where it looks way, way too saturated and fake, which has been a problem with filming and special effects throughout the DCEU film run. I know we live in a CGI era, but I was hoping for a film that felt a little more old school. I’m glad the film looks bright – the dark days are behind us – but the color grading and special effects just seem too much. And while I’m not against slow motion (the moment where he saves the girl seems to be a great use of this technique), I would be lying if I denied that I have post-traumatic stress disorder in the Snyder films. Snyder’s use of slow motion borders on pornography.

The film opens on July 11th and we will surely see more trailers before then that will give us a better idea of ​​what this film is about and what it will look like. I’m really looking forward to it. Outside The Batman And joker I haven’t really been excited about a DC movie in a very, very long time. Fans need a win. Warner Bros. and DC need it even more.

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