After it was over, I had to sit there a minute and process everything. My six year old daughter had sat on my lap and watched it with me. I asked her, "What did you think of that?"
She replied, "It looks good," then scampered off into the next room.
Unfortunately, I didn't share her sentiment.I hate to say it, but I was underwhelmed. All my friends started texting me and messaging me over facebook: "That was INSANE" and "Holy effin' crap!!!" Yet, I sat there with my phone in my hand staring at a blinking cursor. How did I tell them I wasn't really impressed?
I texted back, "Yeah it looks good," but I was still a bit put off by it. I went to bed that night confused.
As I lay in bed, I played the trailer back in my mind. Most of the first half of the trailer was images from the previous teasers and trailers. Some of the content was new but the over all feel was like something we had already experienced up until Superman rockets off into the sky for what I am assuming is the first time. It just all felt like it had been covered with the previous trailers. I really wanted some more footage of him flying, arms outstretched. There was a brief glimpse of flight but nothing to really quench my thirst for defying gravity. Lastly, the whole end scene with Lois not being able to say "Superman" really bothered me because I couldn't wrap my head around why they wouldn't allow her to say the title character's name. I fell asleep deciding that the trailer didn't impress me because it underperformed with the new footage.
The next morning, I downloaded the trailer, converted it to audio format and added it to my iPod. The music intrigued me and I wanted to get a better listen to it on my commute to work. The radio in my car doesn't work so I put one ear bud in while I drive and listen to my iPod. I queued up the trailer, pointed my car towards Des Moines and the sounds of the trailer washed over me. My attention was focused on the somber piano notes that introduce the footage when Jor El's words broke through the music. He discussed with Laura about Kal El's destiny. She says, "He'll be an outcast. They'll kill him."
Jor El replies, "How? He'll be a god to them." My ears pearked up.
Later Jonathan Kent says, "I have to believe you were sent here for a reason and even if it takes the rest of your life, you owe it to yourself to find out what that reason is."
Jor El speaks again just as Superman is starting to fly for the first time: "You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will rise behind you. They will stumble. They will fall. In time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders."
All of this pointed towards Superman being a beacon of hope. It showed that both of his fathers wanted him to be the example of mankind's potential for good and lead us towards that potential. It also showed that both fathers wanted what was best for their son. Jor El cares for his son so much that he sends him to a planet where he will have extraordinary power and be all but indestructible instead of sending him where he would be just another person. Jonathan cares for Clark to the point that he wants Clark to find out who he is but no matter what his origins, Clark will always be a Kent.
I realized when I first watched the trailer, I was watching it but I wasn't listening to it, at least, not what it had to say. I played the trailer repeatedly and listened deeper each time. Yes, this is a Superman movie but it is also a movie about lineage and parenting and helping an out of place son find his destiny.
Once I heard the trailer, I wasn't so worried about the images anymore. The movie will show me all that I need to see and I was being selfish by wanting more. The emotion behind the images took over and told me this movie wasn't going to be about just Superman doing super stuff but about Clark's journey as two fathers help mold him into Superman and we will be lucky enough to join him. In the trailer, Superman says, "My father believed that if the world found who I really was they would reject me. He was convinced that the world wasn't ready. What do you think?" I think the world is ready and I know I am.
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