Henry Cavill as Superman



A picture of Henry Cavill in his full Superman garb can now be found at Superherohype. Now whenever the first picture of the costume in a superhero movie turns up online, the usual fan responses on forums are:

A. I'll reserve my comments till I see the movie. (which actually means it ain't so great, but I'm not going to write off the movie yet)

B. It looks awesome! I'm totally going to see the movie!

C. I hate it! I'm boycotting this movie!

I'm inclined to choose option 1 as my person response. Its not exactly what I expected, a more "Batman" kind of Superman suit, if that makes any sense. In other words, its a grittier looking Superman.

Major differences that I can spot between this and Brandon Routh's costume are:

1. The colour of the suit is a really dark blue. Now that could be due to lighting.

2. The material is definitely more textured than the previous ones (although Routh's costume was textured with little Superman "S"s, it wasn't as visible as this one).

3. His boots reach higher up his leg, and are more like Christopher Reeve's boots.

4. The "S" on the chest is much bigger than Routh's. This was a big compliant about Routh's suit when it was first showcased. It's size looks about the same as Reeve's, but this one is raised too like Routh's.

5. The belt doesn't look like it has a Superman emblem on it, unlike Routh's.

6. And last but not least, what everyone has been wanting to find out, does Superman still wear his underwear on the outside? Or has it been removed like in the comics version by Jim Lee. Well the photo is kind of dark there, but having taken a really close look at the photo (I can't believe I'm doing this), I would say that there is no sign of the signature red underwear.

Oh and Cavill is also missing the spit-curl in his hair, that Reeves made so famous. And his hair looks slightly weird to me, but I think its the angle.

Looking at the first picture of Routh that was released back then, I think the studio has learnt its lesson on releasing superhero outfits. Instead of releasing a full shot of Superman like they did last time, they deliberately released the one for "Man of Steel" such that you don't get a look of his whole body, coupled with the fact that its slightly dark so you can't see everything clearly too. I remember when people criticized the Routh Superman suit, Bryan Singer came out to say that he was really saddened by it, cos they had spent so much effort in making the costume.

Anyway I'll wait for more shots of Superman to come out to get a better look at the suit. One last thing about Cavill, he reminds me of this guy that I saw auditioning for the first Superman film in the documentary "Look Up in the Sky - The Amazing Story of Superman".

[see full picture of Henry Cavill at Superherohype, via Warner Bros. Pictures & Legendary Pictures]
[see full picture of Brandon Routh at AllMoviePhoto.com]