Three-minute trailers are not the norm in Hollywood these days, but this emotionally riveting and effects-laden look at one of American’s biggest icons made many hungry to try out Zack Snyder’s blockbuster. While Man of Steel still ranks as my least-favourite film of the year, I could contribute that (slightly) to a final trailer that delivered on so many levels that the final product could never live up to its epic promotions.
There is more emotional weight in the three-minute ad than in the entirety of Zack Snyder’s cacophonous superhero film, likely because the trailer isolates the more heart-wrenching moments involving Jor-El (Russell Crowe), Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) and the young Clark Kent. Instead of surrounding these moments with headache-inducing action, the trailer has a more gentle, yet still heroic, musical score. The moments of grace and wonder here creates a grand mythology of the character that Snyder’s film could not fulfill.
This trailer also shows an ideal of Superman that resonated with many viewers (such as this one) more than the bland, brooding, head-snapping one that Henry Cavill played. It is an exciting piece of marketing that ultimately gave so many such a sublime view of what a Superman movie could have been that it was no wonder that so many people left the theatre disappointed.