An official photo of Henry Cavill as Superman in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel.

It's so nice to see these things first as they were intended to be seen, as opposed to some grainy photos shot by paparazzi or what-not... Anyway, it's obvious that Warner Bros. is keen to reassure fans that this Superman is more of a bad-ass than the previous big-screen incarnations.  We're looking at something less like Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh and more like Tim Daly/George Newell from Superman: the Animated Series and Justice League.  I haven't written much about the film, as I did not have time to write a blurb every time a piece of high-profile casting was announced.  Unlike most people, I really liked Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, so I'm actually expecting this to be a good movie.  Even if you don't like his last film, the action scenes were unarguably incredible and just the sort of large-scale heroics we want to see in a big-budget Superman picture.  Furthermore, from what little we know about the story, they seem to be taking chunks from Superman: Birthright, which is EXACTLY what I suggested they do early last year when this project was announced.

A final note, even if the film ends up being a little underwhelming in one way or another, the cast alone will make this a must-see and probably a must-enjoy.  Kevin Costner, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Christopher Meloni, Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Julia Ormand, Henry Lennix, my god that's a cast!  Oh, and I forgot the newest announcement, whereby Laurence Fishburne got to celebrate his fiftieth birthday by getting picked for Perry White.  As far as the whole (to quote Jim Paddock from Lethal Weapon 2) "but... but... you're BLACK!" issue, I'm just glad that Frank Langella, Ed Asner, and/or Michael McKean didn't have to die for it to happen (I assume Jackie Cooper's passing this May was a coincidence while Piere Watkin died in 1960 and Lane Smith died six years ago).  Hey, whatever gets us closer to Zoe Saldana as Wonder Woman, right?  Anyway, Man of Steel opens June 13th, 2013.  As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson