DC and Warner Bros. dropped the first trailer for Superman this morning and it’s great. James Gunn appears to be taking the DC Universe in a solid new direction with the first film under the new DCU banner.

David Corenswet looks the part as both the muscled man of steel and the bumbling Clark Kent in his ill-fitting suit and thick-rimmed glasses. As much of a Henry Cavill fan as I am, I think Corenswet fills Superman’s big red boots nicely, even if the suit is a bit more controversial.

Here’s the trailer:

First, let’s talk about what works in this trailer:

The casting is on-point. Corenswet is perfect as a younger, less chiseled, less stern version of Superman. Again, Cavill was great in the role but he—like everyone else in the Snyderverse—was brought down by Zack Snyder’s dour filmmaking. Rachel Brosnahan is a marvelous choice for Lois Lane. I love Amy Adams, but she never quite fit the part. The always wonderful Nicholas Hoult, who won me over in The Great, should knock it out of the park as arch-villain Lex Luthor, boss of Lexcorp—er, Luthorcorp. Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner haircut is also one for the books.
I like the brief moments with Lois Lane and Superman/Clark Kent. It appears she will find out that they are one and the same in this movie and we’ll get some good romance, even some kissing in flight.
Krypto the superdog is the star of the show, clearly. “Take me home, Krypto” is the only line of dialogue here and it’s pitch-perfect. Krypto will be the marketing darling for this movie. I think even this trailer’s detractors would agree.
I love seeing Superman save people. There is a lot of emphasis on hope and compassion and kindness in this trailer, even if it is just a “teaser” trailer that doesn’t give away much of the story. The little boy saying “Superman” almost like a prayer as war rages around him is also a nice touch.
All of this points to a more earnest Superman film. Less grimdark, more hopeful, more sincere, but not necessarily filled with your typical James Gunn goofiness. This is a tough tone to get right. Obviously, we don’t have enough to go on here, but I’m optimistic. That being said, it’s clearly a movie with plenty of action, struggle, violence, etc. This is, if anything, darker than I expected.
The soundtrack really evokes the old John Williams score. I dig the electric guitar / orchestral hybrid they have going on.

There are two things I’m not a big fan of in the trailer. One has me worried, the other I just plain don’t like.

I’m worried about the sheer number of characters, and in particular super-characters, that we’re introduced to in this teaser. I’m not sure we should have a big ensemble in the first DC reboot, which I would hope focuses more neatly on Superman and Lex Luthor. But we have Guy Gardner here, some kind of Kaiju, Hawkgirl and more, and that’s without seeing Supergirl.

More worrisome is the cinematography. There are moments when it looks great, and others when it looks far, far too saturated and fake, which was a problem with the filming and special effects throughout the DCEU film run. I know we live in an era of CGI, but I was hoping for a film that felt a bit more old-school. I’m glad that the movie looks bright—the dark days are behind us—but the color-grading and special effects just feel like too much. And while I’m not against slow-motion (the moment where he saves the girl seems like a great use of the technique), I’d be lying if I denied having some PTSD from the Snyder films. Snyder’s use of slow-motion is bordering on pornographic.

The film opens on July 11th and we’re sure to see more trailers before then that give us a better sense of what this movie is about and how it will look. I’m genuinely looking forward to this. Outside of The Batman and Joker I haven’t really been excited about a DC film in a very, very long time. Fans need a win. Warner Bros. and DC need it even more.

Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.