Warner Brothers' lesson from Returns was clear. Superman can be dark, he can even be a dad, just don't make him maudlin.
... Like Returns, this too promises to be a more serious, relatively realistic take on the world's most popular caped hero. But unlike Singer, this time Snyder (Watchmen), screenwriter David Goyer (Batman Begins) and producer Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) seem to have figured out what the X-Men director didn't: Once you define who Clark Kent (Kal-El, Superman) is at his core, his values and his fears, then you can deliver any spectacles you want, but you have to start small first, instead of envisioning a grand apparatus and then searching for ways to add heart.
The latter misstep has often translated into lazy ways of bringing Superman down a peg—typically cheesy roundabouts that simply axed the "super" out to leave only the "man." Clark gets drunk in a diner and trash talks a bully; he wrestles with an evil version of himself in a junkyard; He's just like you and me!
But we don't need to see Superman lose his powers or stalkerishly moping over a lost love in order to identify with him. At his essence, Superman is someone who knows with every (admittedly unbreakable) bone in his body that he is called to do something, something noble, something that he is capable of doing, but a calling that will never be easy. Last time I checked, that's everyone.
Driving this point home with a character-filled script frees up Snyder and his stellar cast that includes Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon and Russell Crowe to make Man of Steel the biggest, wildest, most Michael Bay-est epic ever. Which is just as it should be, as long as we feel something. And we will.
Because this is not Superman gone dark. It's Superman from the inside out. The one we've been waiting a generation for.
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Also some will take issue with the big spoiler at the end (please don't discuss here).
