Man Of Steel Trailer: 12 Questions Raised

Why is Superman apparently unconscious?

Superman is completely invulnerable to anything that doesn't involve Kryptonite.

This includes guns, explosions and water.

So we're not entirely sure why Clark is floating in the water in this opening sequence, doing his best impression of Skyfall' s James Bond doing an impression of Jesus.

Perhaps in this version of the mythology, it takes longer for Supes to develop his powers, which would actually be a smart move.

One of the biggest criticisms of the character is that, because he's essentially invincible, there's no tension.

The comics get around that by putting his pals into peril, but here it seems that Superman will be facing some personal pain.

This is backed up by the shot later on in the trailer of our hero being knocked to the ground, apparently in a weakened state.

Let's hope Snyder and Nolan don't push that element too far, though.

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Why the pencils?

This takes us back to that first teaser trailer, which looked a bit like Terrence Malick directing an ad for Persil.

It's another fairly ambient, evocative shot, which we're pretty sure is intended to symbolise journalism.

It closes with a nice bit of dialogue - young Clark saying "The world's too big, mom." With Martha's reply: "Then make it small."

Here Snyder seems to be suggesting that, with pencils, journalists can make the world seem smaller, by spreading international news across the globe.

Perhaps a shot of some Internet wouldn't have been as romantic.

We're aware the shot could symbolise something as simple as: the more you learn, the smaller the world seems.

But it's significant enough to make the trailer. We hope we're not going to be spending loads of time in Clark's classroom. We've got Smallville for that.

We'd prefer it if it was foreshadowing Clark's future career.

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Why is Jonathan Kent advocating child death?

So, after young Clark saves his school chums from a bus crash, his dad Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) gives him a bit of a telling off.

"You have to keep this side of yourself a secret."
"What was I supposed to do, just let them die?"
"Maybe."

Which, written down, sounds like the direct opposite of the advice Uncle Ben gives Peter Parker in Spider-Man , but if you watch the trailer again, Costner allows his head to dip slightly as he says it, as if ashamed of what he's saying.

Clearly his love for Clark runs so deep that he is prepared to go against his moral code to protect him.

The line's caused a bit of an outcry amongst Super fans, but we actually love it. It's a beautiful moment.

We're very excited for Costner's performance in Steel.

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Where is this?

When we first watched the trailer we assumed that this was a shot of Krypton exploding, or some sort of space battle - but now we've given it a closer look, those are cars and buses and buildings being exploded by what appears to be a sky laser.

It's all a bit Avengers Assemble / Transformers 3 / Star Trek , to be honest.

Still, we're optimistic and we're hoping it's an early trial for Superman, and not the third act's main sequence.

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How does Superman get to Earth?

Here we get our first look at Russell Crowe and Julia Ormond as Kal-El's mum and dad.

They're saying goodbye to their baby boy, as Krypton explodes all around them.

It's one of the most important sequences of the Superman comics, as iconic as Spider-Man being bitten by a spider, or Batman being inspired by a bat flying through the window.

We know that Snyder will be making adjustments to the mythology, but thankfully he doesn't seem to be straying too far from this element.

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Why is Superman on fire?

This looks like it takes place shortly before the trailer's opening sequence - unless Superman spends half the movie with his top off - and, just like that sequence, it makes us wonder why Superman isn't using his powers.

Stop looking for a fire extinguisher and use your Freeze Breath, dude.

Or just use your normal breath - last time we checked, it was pretty damn powerful.

It looks like Clark is on a ship here, which will shortly explode, knock him out and dump him into the sea. For some reason.

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Whose spaceship is this?

Is this Zod's invading army, or has the small capsule that carries Clark to Kansas been souped up?

Or could it be Zod himself?

Considering he's in the very next shot of the trailer, we'd say it was fairly likely that this is Zod's vehicle of choice.

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What's Zod's threat level?

We love that Zod's maintained his predilection for facial hair, even if this particular beard isn't quite as impressive as Terence Stamp's full goatee.

This is the only glimpse we get of Michael Shannon in this trailer, but we expect more focus on and dialogue from Zod in the next one.

We can assume that he's behind the majority of the explosions that pepper this trailer, but we have no idea how powerful the man himself will be.

We're going to go ahead and assume 'very'.

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What destroys Krypton?

In the comics, Krypton is destroyed by a nuclear chain reaction at the planet's core. It's a naturally occurring disaster that kills everyone on the planet.

Except Superman, obviously.

And, later, Beppo the Super-Monkey (though we don't expect him to show up in Man Of Steel , maybe in the sequel).

However, don't be surprised if this origin story is tweaked for Steel - we wouldn't be surprised if Zod was responsible for Krypton's destruction, as part of his revenge mission.

Whoever did it, it certainly looks pretty.

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Who's Superman flying towards?

This is one of our favorite shots in the trailer - we like our superheroes super, so we're glad Man Of Steel will include plenty of fast-paced baddy-bashing.

We highly doubt this is Zod, though.

If Man Of Steel is set to stick as closely to the Avengers Assemble action template as it seems from this trailer, this young man will be a part of Zod's army of invading aliens / robots / Skrulls.

We're hoping the second act will contain this city attack from an advance army, before Zod shows up in the third for some more direct action.

We've been wrong before though. Which is all part of the fun of analysis like this, isn't it?

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Why is Superman getting a massive hug?

SPOILERS

There's only one thing this can be, the death of Jonathan Kent.

The father-son dynamic seems to be a huge part of Man Of Steel - there are plenty of direct cuts from Jonathan to Clark in similar situations (holding a kid, for example) a bit of mirroring (Jonathan walks from left to right in the middle distance of one shot, Clark goes from right to left in another).

We expect the narrative to focus on Clark's battle to follow in his fathers (plural - we're including Crowe in this) footsteps.

END SPOILERS

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What is Lois Lane's relationship to Superman?

Our first glimpse of Amy Adams comes after an establishing wide shot of the pair surrounded by what appears to be military police.

They have their guns aimed at our hero.

This feels like it could be Man Of Steel 's "You've given them everything!" "No I haven't, not yet," moment, with Superman convincing Lois that he needs to go with the authorities.

From here, we cut to a rather moving hand-holding shot.

So, it appears that there will be a love story in Man Of Steel , and quite right too.

This is arguably the greatest couple in comic-book history, so the sooner they get together, the better.

It's the tiniest peek at Adams' Lois, but we already have a very good feeling about her.

Man Of Steel will be released on 14 June, 2013.

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