Earlier this afternoon, Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill, the director and star of the upcoming Superman movie Man of Steel made a very special appearance at San Diego Comic Con. In addition to participating in a panel in the famed Hall H, where they answered a bunch of fan questions about the new movie, they also showed the first ever footage from the film. And now I’ve recapped every second of it for you below.
The footage begins with a shot from in front of the Kent home from grass-level and that shot is followed by Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) walking along the side of an icy road. We hear voice over from Jor-El (Russell Crowe) that asks a series of questions like, What if a child decides to become something more? What if a child aspires to something greater? We then see a school bus crash into a body of water and hear a woman’s voice saying, “My son was in the bus, he saw what Clark did” in almost an accusatory tone. As water rushes in we see Clark in the water trying to help. Another voice over begins, this one coming from Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) who seems to be telling his son about who he really is. “People are afraid of what they don’t understand,” he says as we see a shot of a young Clark looking at what appears to be a space ship in a barn. “It’s not from this world, Clark, and neither are you.”
We then cut to what looks like the Fortress of Solitude where an older Clark looks to be handling one of the information crystals provided to him by Jor-El (his Kryptonian father) also seems to appear in front of him. “Answer my questions,” Clark said. “Where do I come from?” We hear Jor-El responds, “You have to decide what kind of man you want to be, Clark. Good or bad, it’s going to change the world.”
The rest of the footage is shown in flashes, with shots of Superman flying in the air, going supersonic as well as huge explosions in what looks like Metropolis (we also see a quick glimpse of The Daily Planet). There is only one quick shot of Zod (Michael Shannon), who appears to be wearing some kind of outer-space collar – and Lois Lane (Amy Adams – who runs towards the camera in a panic – but other shots include Superman shirtless and on fire, escaping from beneath a pile of skulls, being blasted through a bank and into a safe door (the origin of this still), and being arrested and taken down a hallway. The preview ends with Superman walking towards a group of armed-soldiers with his hands in the air, with voice-over saying, “My father believed that if the world found out who I really was they would reject and they would fear me. He was convinced the world wasn’t ready. What do you think?”
What surprised me most about the footage was how bleak it was. Snyder seems to be using a much duller, dimmer color palette this time around. It would seem that he has taken a page out of Christopher Nolan’s book – Nolan does serve as executive producer on the film – and gone dark with this Superman story.
Man of Steel will be released on June 14, 2013. For more info about the movie, be sure to head over to our Blend Film Database
