The new, five-minute sneak peak of James Gunn’s upcoming Superman film opens with a wounded and weak Superman (played by David Corenswet) dropping from the sky onto the Arctic. He’s wheezing and spitting blood. One wonders why Gunn decided to open the film with the DCU’s most invulnerable superhero gasping for breath. But then again, it might be a classic Gunn touch, who likes his superheroes as human as they come.
So far so good, but then Superman whistles for Krypto and the dog comes bounding into view. He playfully leaps and bangs against our tortured superhero, making him howl in pain. That’s a little too much pain for our taste lasting for almost two minutes, especially seeing as how it is inflicted by a loveable super-dog. Is the scene supposed to be funny in a twisted way? If so, we are not laughing.
Krypto finally gets the point and drags Superman to the Fortress of Solitude, where automatons tend to Corenswet’s wounds. When he thanks them, one of them replies: “No need to thank us, sir, as we will not appreciate it. We have no consciousness whatsoever. We are merely automatons here to serve.” And then, he introduces Superman to a new recruit, 12.
As Superman turns his attention to her, she starts giggling and mutters: “He looked at me.” What? That little exchange was completely pointless; it looked infantile, like you had cut into a scene from Legally Blonde. All 12 lacked was a cute purse and a lovelorn look, which, considering she is an automaton “with no consciousness”, might have been hard to pull off.
The rest of the trailer is pretty standard, with some heavy-duty romance between Clark Kent and Lois Lane (played by Rachel Brosnahan); a kid from a fictional country praying to Superman; him saving a little girl as a structure comes crashing down; Kent in a touching scene with his father (which was the best part of the trailer); and Kent working at the Daily Planet. No problems there, except that it all looked suspiciously familiar, with the same tropes that are common in every Superman film. Also, the thick-rimmed glasses did not help in making Kent look nerdy; instead, it kind of made him look a little creepy. Maybe some gel and a middle-parting might have helped? Then again, maybe not.
But the worst part of the trailer might be Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. There is nothing Luthor-ian about him. He might look mean, but not menacing. He resembles the guy at your office meetings who is always cracking rotten jokes and trying to show off. You feel annoyed, but hardly scared. No number of badass dialogues can make this baddie look bad.
