Trailer Blazer: 'Superman Returns': The 'dark' side

Superman, still in the process of returning, has leaked a new trailer. It’s the “dark” trailer, the “badass” trailer. Cunning of those Warner Bros. mini-Luthors, releasing it ahead of X-Men: The Last Stand‘s weekend.

Quite a few bits of the first trailer are recycled here, but there’s plenty of new stuff: Spacey’s Luthor dryly proclaiming, “I’m a fan,” Superman swooping toward the Fortress of Solitude, a longer shot of the mid-air shuttle rescue scene, an awkward cheek-kissing reunion with Lois, Luthor shivving Supes with what might be a Kryptonian dagger. Oh, and the final image: Supes taking a bullet to the eye, point blank. Then regarding his assailant with disgust and amusement. Yeah! You tell ’em, Kal-El!

We hear a few more lines from Brandon Routh this time around. (“You wrote that the world doesn’t need a savior. But every day, I hear millions crying out for one.”) I’d like to hear even more — the more muteness, the more the epithet “model” gets thrown around out here in cyberspace. Sure, he doesn’t sound exactly like Christopher Reeve; he’s not that sort of actor. But I’d still like to hear him talk. A mere quibble, by the way: Everything else I’ve seen so bodes well.

And yes, he still looks a little like Jason Schwartzman. But Supes, while raised as a corn-fed Scots-Irish farm boy, was never really a corn-fed Scots-Irish farm boy. I may be off base (not having actually seen the movie), but I’d recommend examining director Bryan Singer’s vision through the mid-century immigrant lens of Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Read it and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Also: It’s a fantastic book.

OK, I’m going to go watch that again. In case you haven’t noticed, this is the movie my giddy inner-12-year-old is getting all jittery and weak-kneed over. Second only to Batman, Superman is, I’m afraid, my Kryptonite. Expect little or no unbiased reporting from me on this topic.