New posters for two of next year's most anticipated movies suggest that summer 2013 could be shaping up to be a festival of darkness.
First up is the desolate new Man of Steel image. With Superman in handcuffs (above), the haunting poster evokes a misunderstood Man of Steel (played by Henry Cavill) looking far more bleak than the superheroes of summers past. Then there's the teaser for the latest Star Trek flick. Where J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot generated considerable warmth by offering fresh incarnations of Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the beloved crew, the USS Enterprise's new adventure is being depicted (below) as the chilly exercise in desolation spelled out in the title: Star Trek Into Darkness.
The Man of Steel graphic, in keeping with somber preview footage, bears the hallmark of producer Christopher Nolan. He hand-picked Zack Snyder to direct British hunk Cavill in the new Superman flick after he received the blessing of Warner Bros. to oversee a new iteration of DC Comics' most famous character following his massively succesful Dark Knight trilogy.
Nolan's Batman came fully loaded with despair, cynicism and self-doubt. Having re-defined comic book superhero stories as serious cinema, it's not surprising that Nolan and company would go dark with this Superman origin story, just as they did with 2005's brooding Batman Begins, for maximum effect. And since Man of Steel was co-written with Dark Knight scribe David S. Goyer, it will likely go nowhere near the Marvel Comics brand of snarky humor that made Iron Man and The Avengers such tasty popcorn flicks. Instead, as the the new poster and trailer sequences show, it's likely Snyder's Clark Kent will be portrayed as a misunderstood misfit who gets no respect from the authorities (hence the handcuffs).
Similarly, the spooky ruins depicted in the new Star Trek Into Darkness poster, which evokes the cityscape-makes-the-logo motif of the Dark Knight Rises iconography, suggest that Abrams could be ready to unveil his most serious movie to date. Teamed on Into Darkness with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman -- the scribes of 2009's Trek flick -- Abrams has a gift of blending wit and action in character-driven spectacles ranging from Mission: Impossible III to TV's jaunty sci-fi freakfest Fringe. So while the new poster points to a relatively ominous direction for the Star Trek franchise, here's hoping Abrams doesn't leave every wisecrack on the cutting room floor.
If he does, we could all be in for one long, sad summer indeed.
Star Trek Into Darkness opens May 17.
Man of Steel opens June 14.
