Yesterday the first full trailer for Zack Snyder’s Superman movie Man of Steel hit the internet, and it made for some interesting viewing.

For mine, this is an excellent trailer. It’s bold and operatic. It gives you a sense of what the film is about thematically without giving away any of the narrative. If you didn’t know what you were watching, you could get about a minute into the trailer before realising it was Superman.

Christopher Nolan is a producer on the film, and it appears that they have taken a leaf out of his Batman blue-print. He has said in a number of interviews that one of the primary goals of Batman Begins was to get the audience to care about Bruce Wayne and not just be impatiently waiting for him to put the suit on. It appears Snyder is taking a similar approach here with Man of Steel, trying to get us invested in Clark Kent as a person. Even in this first trailer we are being confronted with the questions and decisions facing this young man.

We get little glimpses of what is a very impressive supporting cast – Russell Crowe, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne and Michael Shannon – but really, this trailer is all about Henry Cavill, and he definitely looks the part (apart from one awkward shot where he looks a bit made up).

The film is due out mid-2013 and I’ll be very interested to see how it goes. The big question for me, which is still hasn’t really been answered, is can they make Superman an interesting, complex and flawed enough character for a 21st century audience to get behind. Look at the superhero movies that have succeeded over the last few years. Nolan’s Batman is an emotionally damaged vigilante. Jon Favreau’s Iron Man is a arrogant, narcissistic playboy. Is Superman, as a concept, too perfect for contemporary audiences? And is the rest of the world still interested in a superhero who fights for “Truth, Justice and the American way”?