Forgive me. This trailer is a few months old. But I wanted to review it anyway. To begin, I think I’ll coin a new verb.
Dark Knightify \dark,-nite,’ify\
transitive verb.
- To make resemble Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight
- To create a grittier, darker version of a preexisting franchise
Used in a sentence: Director Zack Snyder is Dark Knightifying Superman with his film The Man of Steel.
Pretty nifty, this trailer. This makes me want to see it. Not only does The Man of Steel look like it’s taking some cues from Dark Knight, it also looks like it took cues from Tree of Life. Note how the trailer makes use of such dark nostalgia: water hitting the rocks, clothes dancing on the clothes’ line, boy wearing a cape running, butterfly on the swing. The first minute of this trailer leads you to think this will be a grizzly drama about America. Maybe it will be.
The reason I’m optimistic about Man of Steel is that the project is in the hands of Zack Snyder, who has the reputation of being a comic book loyalist e.g. he doesn’t stray far from the source material with his films. Think Watchmen or 300, both Snyder films that were intensely true to their original books. Only thing is, with Superman, there’s so much damn source material it’s hard to guess which way he’ll go. But I trust Christopher Nolan had a hand in making that decision. So I have faith.
I give Man of Steel four stars. It looks like a drastic reenvisioning of Superman, but like it’ll also stay true to the core values of Superman — which the dismal Superman Returns did not. Here’s crossing my fingers, hoping this film will again prove the timeless fact: Superman is certainly the best superhero ever created.
Also look at this poster. Superman’s in handcuffs. Say what?!!
Also here’s a classic Max Fleischer Superman cartoon from the ‘40s. Enjoy!
Trailerbites 