New Superman Scene: Weird Marketing Move or Genius?

[00:00:02] Speaker A: What up, everybody? And welcome back to another episode of the Nerdy Report. I'm your host, Pablo, and joining me, as always, is Mr. Brian Schultz. Brian, we got our sneak peek. Five minutes. And you hear people complaining about this, you hear people complaining about that. You hear people enjoying what they did because of certain reasons that we'll get into. I. Brian, after seeing it, I didn't mind it. I thought it was okay. It's one of the things that people, I think, appreciate about this is they're not giving you anything. [00:00:44] Speaker B: Yes. [00:00:44] Speaker A: More than what they should. [00:00:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:47] Speaker A: Your thoughts on the five minutes? [00:00:49] Speaker B: Yeah. You hit on the number one point, which was my biggest fear was that it would be a big reveal because they felt like they had lost some momentum and the pressure was mounting. And thankfully they did not do that. So this really was the Dark Knight Rises format. Right. It was a scene plus a. A recut of the teaser, like a rapid fire couple of shots, almost all of which we had seen already. Most reports have indicated everything that is in the trail. The teaser we got earlier is in the first third of the movie. So you haven't seen anything from. You have not seen a single shot from the second Two, second, Act two, act two and act three. So congrats to them. Right. Move. You know, I've seen the both sides of this and my sort of. My sort of tagline and response is, well, they put it in front of Minecraft, so who do you think they were aiming at? Like, the people who are like, wanted to see something more dramatic or more action or more adult. I'm like, do you know what Minecraft's target audience is? It's for teens. It's for kids. Like, they're not gonna. Yeah, of course they're gonna lead with the dog because that's the thing that kids will gravitate to. And, you know, I showed the scene to my kid and that's. I said, it's gonna be a crypto. She's like. She's like, that's awesome. She's like, that's all I want to see. I want to see more crypto. So it was effective. And by the way, I don't know where the line is between Minecraft's popularity itself and this scene being placed in front of it, but all I know is the initial box office estimate for Minecraft's first weekend was supposed to be $60 million and it's gonna do 150, so that's crazy. So we got. This has been a good week. It's been a good Week for IP marketing, we had the Avengers chair announcement. Right. Most, five times more than the most watched trailer of all time. And we had this attached to a film that then went 2 1/2 x its expectation and became the biggest weekend opening weekend of the year by far. Which means a lot of eyeballs and a lot of family eyeballs saw this. [00:02:56] Speaker A: For me, I'll just say this for the Minecraft situation I think is an opportunity for adults to take their kids and just decompress while they watch this. And this is just a moment to get away. And this is what's out Minecraft, a familiar ip, a game for that kids love and play. It's just kind of a no brainer. How would you describe this phenomenon? [00:03:31] Speaker B: I would say which part of it do you want to break down? [00:03:35] Speaker A: Well, I'm talking about Minecraft. Right. That it's making is doing what it's doing regardless of. Because we sort of like if a movie has bad reviews, the tendency is for people not wanting to waste, waste their time. Because this is a kid movie. [00:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:00] Speaker A: You just want to take your kids, which are probably 3, 4, 2, who knows, right? Whatever. How many kids you got. You take him. And the likelihood of them liking because of the visual stimulation that you're seeing on screen and the familiarity that you have to the ip, the curiosity is there for kids to go see this and their parents to go take them. [00:04:26] Speaker B: Well, let's not forget, I mean Super Mario reviews were basically the same as this. [00:04:29] Speaker A: Really. [00:04:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, but you know why? Because. Because the people that review it are not the target audience really. I mean, and I think even more so in the case of a movie like this. So like Super Mario Brothers, what worked was the universal nostalgia that connects that character across generations. [00:04:49] Speaker A: Right. [00:04:50] Speaker B: What the critics got caught up in was like the technical merit or Chris Pratt's vote. Right. The they're looking at it as like this auteur piece of art. And like none of us that went to see it were like expecting that. This is not on my Academy awards watch list, man. Like yeah, this is because I had Nintendo and I had Game Boy and I played, I have played Mario World and I've played these characters through decades or Mario Kart and kids have come to this from different angles, 3D side scrolling. Right. Like that's why people went to see it and it connected. Now Minecraft is more limited because Minecraft doesn't have that 50, 40, 50 year history, but it is very much still a zeitgeist activity for a key demographic that sometimes is hard to get to go to the movies. And like, I think a lot of times with video games when they do stuff like this, they miss the moment, right? The game is hot, they acquire the film rights, they develop the film, but by the time the film comes out, the game is no longer the it thing. You've seen this happen a lot. I think it's part of why video game adaptations fail. But this thing is still going. Like kids play Minecraft on their, on the computer, they play it on the iPad, they play it on, you know, their consoles. It's still happening now. So I guarantee there's a lot of people that were just like, there's a Minecraft movie. And in the trailer like the characters like and the worlds look like the game, like legitimately, like they're like, I don't care what that is. Like Jack Black, Jason, Momoa, whatever. I'm just like, I'm making my parents take me to go to see this. Or if I'm a teenager I'm like, hey, I'm going with my friends to see this. I gotta find out what this is like. And I don't know if this will have the same staying power that Mario did. I don't think it will. I don't think we're getting to like a billion five, but it kind of doesn't matter, right? This thing has become an event film and I think it's different, right? It's a different channel for kids and for families than what they typically have. Like it's not a Pixar movie, it's not Snow White for all sorts of reasons. And it has a niche that I think kind of hooked people. So I think it wound up being, you know, a savvy play. It's obviously wound up being a big hit and putting tying it to Superman I think is a really smart thing because we know that like they want this Superman movie to be an all quadrants movie. Like you know, apologies to the Snyder crowd. We just talked about Aflac last week where he was kind of saying like I realized how dark and how adult and how scary they were going. And he's like they're locking out a part of the audience very actively by doing that. He's like, we know they're course correcting for that. So of course there's going to be like a light hearted crypto oriented hook that they're going to put. Now if they had, you know, if they had wanted to meter out a little bit more and be a little, I don't know what they to get really fancy. They could have taken a page out of the man of Steel book or a variant of that. What if they had done, like. What if they built, like, two or three versions of it and there were different scenes from the first part of the movie, and depending on how, like, adult the movie was that they were attaching it to you, they gave you, like, a different version. Like, that could have been interesting. But they don't have to do that. They're going for the families, and the families are what I'm going to get. That's what's going to get them paid. [00:08:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:04] Speaker B: They can't get to a billion without younger audiences. They can't. [00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:11] Speaker B: So I'm not surprised Minecraft hit. I'm a little surprised it hit this big. But I think we're in. And we're in the age where this stuff matters. That's why I think, like, that Zelda trilogy. I think that Zelda movies could be massive if it's even passively decent. [00:08:29] Speaker A: Do you think Superman can hit a billion five? [00:08:32] Speaker B: No, I don't even think it can hit it. I don't think it's gonna hit a billion. But, like, I just. [00:08:38] Speaker A: I had one. One. One subscriber, I think. [00:08:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw. [00:08:41] Speaker A: I hope he's a subscriber. Yeah, yeah, like, yeah, 1.3B. You talking about being Black Panther. Whoo. That's. That's. That's a tough. [00:08:48] Speaker B: But hey, hey, we're all rooting for it. Listen, I mean, we're all rooting for it. I just. I'm keeping my expectations tempered because I don't want to, you know, I don't want to treat a 750 as a disappointment because it's not going to be a disappointment. I want. I just want a good movie with a good response. And like I said, they need that response to be not just the nerds, not just the die hards. They needed to be the families. Because naked families invested in a character like Superman again. Now. Now you've got something. You've got a platform. [00:09:16] Speaker A: You roll it with four or five people deep instead of just two and one and three. You rolling for sure with a group. So the demand to see this movie that weekend, so that will open a weekend is going to be huge. And. And the repeat viewing is going to be interesting because there's going to be those who probably took their kids. Okay, now I want to see about myself without having to worry about this dude going to the bathroom asking me for popcorn. [00:09:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:42] Speaker A: So there's going to be those that want to sort of really focus their attention on this. [00:09:47] Speaker B: You can't. I mean, the reality is you can't satisfy everyone, I mean, with. With these type of movies. Right. But, you know, I did see that as of now, the cut is 2 hours and 20 minutes. I would love to see that. If that could get down even another 10 minutes without sacrificing story quality, I think that would be good. But Even as at 220, you know, that avoids the Batman pitfall, which I'm convinced. I'm convinced that separated the Batman from a billion is the fact that it was three hours. I think if that movie is 220, I think it would have made a billion. Just more viewings, more show times, you know, a little less of an investment. But. But yeah, no. So this was a. This was a good week. They. We. They need. Again, Superman needed a win. They needed a little rebound, and we know Avengers Doomsday needed a win. And I'm not saying either of these movies are going to be classic because of this week, but both this. This week, both of those movies received a boost in their. In their marketing and sort of in their profile. [00:10:45] Speaker A: So I would have been upset, like, if it was another scene and crypto's in it and it's crypto focused or because this. This scene was just that scene of him taking into his house. That's it. Which is. Which wasn't bad. And, you know, there's people complaining all the sunshine and hurt Superman. And it's like, I'm getting tired of the screams, too. Could they have done that differently? Like, why does he have to scream? I guess that this. The. The explanation is all Superman is pretty banged up and they're telling you all this is broken and this. Whatever and this. And he's repairing and he's feeling the. Yeah, he's feeling repentance. He's screaming out, okay, but whatever, man. Is like, I just want to see the movie, man. That's it. I want to see this. The entirety of this movie, which he's done a fantastic job again, of not showing us too much. [00:11:44] Speaker B: This was also, I think, a trial balloon, an example of where the gun humor meter is in this movie. And if it's here, I'm okay with it. Like, I'm okay with portraying a dog as being blissfully unaware and happy to see its master and therefore bumping into him and jumping on him and, you know, kind of doing these things that he. That would not be helpful in the moment, but it's a very much kind of what A dog might do. I can live with it. It's likewise, you know, he's having the conversations with the robots that. That, like, little bit of, oh, it's their first day. Like, that's the stuff I can live with because it isn't taking me out of the story. And you're. And you're kind of doing it in the context of, like, for the nerds. Here's something for the nerds. Right? Here's a little sort of piece of Superman lore. The everyday audience would be like, I don't know who these robots are, whatever. Why, you know. But if you've. If you're deep in the comics, there's a version of it where you're like, oh, those. Those characters are here for a little bit. [00:12:38] Speaker A: It makes that moment in the trailer where Superman is sort of cradling one of the robots. [00:12:45] Speaker B: Yeah. It gives it emotional weight. Why he cares. [00:12:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Because. And in this one, he says, we're here to serve, master. Whatever. We. We're not. We don't. We're not programmed for emotions or whatever the case may be. So it sets up sort of those. Those. Those little things. And I'm fine with that. Yeah. The complaints, like, again, I just want to see this movie. Like, anything else that he shows up, if it's. If it can elevate the excitement, I'm all for it. But that sort of stuff has to be tempered with someone not being him, perhaps him, because he's. Again, he's doing. He's. He's not showing you anything. And I think that's the point. So it'll be interesting. What else he has to show us April 18th will we get? Because we heard Lex speak. Do we hear Lois Lane speak? Jimmy speak? Any other character speak? Clark Kent speak. It'll be interesting if that's the final trailer or the final iterations. And then from there, we just get quick cuts of those. Of the things that he's already shown us before we get the actual thing. [00:13:52] Speaker B: Look, I mean, I think that there's also a couple of obvious burning questions, which is how. How does he get beat up that badly? Is that the Ultraman fight? Is that the Kaiju? I mean, come on. You're not. You're not at least curious? Especially when the robots give you the detail of how much damage he took. Like, put that damage on Superman without, like. And obviously, if he's flying. Because he was flying. Right. He crashes into. Means he wasn't totally depowered by kryptonite. So who's doing that to him? Without, you know, sort of making him truly vulnerable. I mean, that's at least an interesting question. [00:14:22] Speaker A: You know, reminds me of the. Of Superman fled or Superman flew away. Superman didn't even do nothing. Like, yo, why you flying away all messed up? Why did you leave? You run away? You gave up. [00:14:44] Speaker B: That was tough. I love that scene. [00:14:46] Speaker A: But those are. [00:14:46] Speaker B: Those are tough. [00:14:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:48] Speaker B: They don't get it. They don't get it. Nope. Well, here's, you know, here's who. Here's who heard them is Zack Snyder. Because he said, I'm gonna put that damage right down on your streets, non stop. So you want it. You want it in the city? I'm gonna keep it in the city. [00:15:09] Speaker A: And cause total destruction. No wonder nobody likes Superman. I wouldn't like Superman. You know, I got no parents because of you. [00:15:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, goodness. Oh, goodness. I had one other question. So. Okay. I heard one other thing this week about the structure of this movie, and I've been debating it. I want to bounce it off you. I don't know if you heard it. The idea that we know this is kind of a. We're being dropped into a world that is basically fully formed. Right. GUN has told us we're not really interested in giving you the origin story. Not really interested in giving you the origin of why Superman and Lex Luthor don't get along. You just. You just know that they don't. Lex already hates him. So with that in mind, one of the things that got put out this week was that the structure of the movie is that it's not a totally. It's not an overly complex plot. It's not a really like, hey, there's lots of twists and turns here. It's more of an episodic movie where it's like you're literally dropped into the world with all these characters. And it's basically Lex out for blood to try to stop Superman at all costs with his own twisted sense of morality. And it's just him masterminding attack after attack, scheme after scheme, and Superman just having to thwart all different kinds of enemies and foes and traps. And it's not even like we're going to a specific place. It's just like, you know what movie I weirdly, I rewatched the other day, and I was trying to think of. This was a comparison. You remember the movie adaptation. Speaking of Colin Farrell, the movie adaptation of Miami Vice, the one that Michael man brought back. So that movie, which, by the way, I think is not bad at all, if you go back and Watch it. It is. You start in the nightclub in the middle of something that you don't understand, and you end with, like, them just walking into the hospital. There's no, like, grand finale. It's just you just spend two and a half hours in their lives as cops. And I've been thinking, like, is if we did that, it's like we're going to spend two and a half hours in the lives of Superman, Lois, Lex, and these main characters without a true beginning and without a true end. How does that sound to you as a entry point to this world? [00:17:26] Speaker A: In two ways it makes sense. One, he's just trying to sort of let you in into this world that's already. This is just the way it is, right? And in the next thing, they'll encounter something else. Something else, and it won't be connected. That's the second thing that none of. Even though this is a world and some of these storylines exist in this world, they're not connected. And this is just a day in the life of. Or this is his life situation. And this is just a moment where you experience how he sort of handles these situations or she handles these situations, or they handle these situations. Here's the thing. I don't think he can escape the little things that will make the world connected. And if he's leading towards a Justice League, I don't think he can escape the little fingerprints of that also happening down the line. Because I guess for me, you have to sort of lead us towards something bigger. And if this is just isolated, this is just as one thing. Am I looking forward to seeing what the next thing is? I don't know. I don't know. [00:18:52] Speaker B: I go back and forth because on the one hand, I agree with you that especially the. One of the legacies of the MCU is as much as you. You appreciate good standalones and you do want some independence, I think that's healthy. It does have to go somewhere. It can't be static, right? So there's a trick of if you're going to pull this off and do it with. If this is true, it has to both feel like vignettes, but feel like vignettes that have propulsion, that, like, when you get to the end of the last one, something about the world has changed. That then sets up where you need to go next. Like, there does have to be that, right? Like, even think about in, like, Dark Knight when Joker and Batman come face to face, right? And he's kind of like, you've changed things, right? He sort of makes that reference to, like, okay, I am building on what you. What came before. Right. In theory, those movies can stand apart if you watch them. Like, they make sense. You don't need to watch the one necessarily to watch the other. But, like, there's that sense of we went from one place to a different place because of actions that were taken. So I do think that has to happen. But I thought it was an interesting idea of, like, giving the audience a lot of credit, basically, and kind of saying, like, you guys know a lot of this mythology, so let's just have some fun in the sandbox, do some really cool stuff between these characters, let them cook, and then give you almost like a. This is the feel we're giving you feels. Right. And like, we're going to live in this broader world now for the next couple years with our main storylines. And, like, you're now comfortable with that. I don't know. It's. It's. It at least was like, I didn't hate it. It just was like, it caught me off guard that that was the approach, because that's not obviously what he did with Guardians. Right. Guardians is definitely like a. There's a linearity to that. There's. It's part of the Infinity Stone McGuffins. Like, so this would be a little different approach as an entry point. [00:20:47] Speaker A: Like, how different would you feel if we never got the end credit scene for the first Iron man or for the. Or the end credit scene for the first Avengers with Thanos? How would it. How different would it be if you never got that? I think you would have been excited for what they did and accomplished, but it. That excitement would not live inside of you for what's next. If you hadn't seen those things, you would have been, oh, Iron man was dope. And that's it. Right? [00:21:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Coming out of theater, seeing that, you would be, oh, there wouldn't. That. That excitement of just seeing the movie would have been, oh, snap, this movie was dope, whatever case may be. But there. You can't say, I'm looking forward to. It'll be tough to say I'll be looking forward to what else? Because they gave it to you with that cutscene. [00:21:46] Speaker B: Yes. [00:21:48] Speaker A: So, no, you're right. [00:21:49] Speaker B: That's a perfect example. I mean, that's. That's a movie that if you. It's an. It's a great movie without the cut scene in. As history will remember it, the cutscene is sort of like a window into something. Like a Hail Mary into what became something epic. Similarly, with the first Avengers. It's like, First Avengers is a great movie without the credit scene. With the credit scene. In retrospect, it's like. [00:22:10] Speaker A: It's like, are we really doing this? So everything leads to. Towards something with this world that James Gunn is creating. Yeah, we get into Justice League, but yeah, I want to see World's Finest. That's the thing I want to see. Yeah. The Justice League is coming. Yeah. And Superman will be the first dude to get got. Yes, yes, yes. But I want to see World's Finest, how they work. There's a reason why that is a title. You do that. And I think James Gunn is aware of that. And I think, again, this will be a world where all of these things exist and these characters exist and stuff like that. But he will be. I don't think there's a. There's not a way. He cannot plant seeds for what's to come. So it'll be interesting to see whether or not he doesn't plant those seeds and how he does it. And if this. According. There is no end credit scene for this, right? [00:23:13] Speaker B: Correct. That's what everyone says. Now, they could still add that. Let's be fair, right? You're screening it months ahead. They could either just be sitting on that because. Let's be fair. Why would you test screen that? Because that's a big teaser. Right. Why would you let that happen? I wouldn't rule out that it's there. [00:23:33] Speaker A: Let us know in the comment section below what you guys thought of that five minute Superman sneak peek. And did the crypto situation bother you? I mean, he. Again, he's not giving us anything that will spoil the movie. And that's. I think that's the biggest appreciation that I have for what he's doing. Bradley Cooper. [00:23:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:59] Speaker A: For some reason, every. Everything often starts with Tom Cruise. We thought it was. The rumor was it was Tom Cruise, but they got another big name, one that I was having a. Yeah. And I was having a conversation who I was having a conversation with. I was having a conversation with somebody about it just made me think like, damn, I appreciate Kyle Chandler, but imagine if it was Bradley Cooper as Hal Jordan. That is like, oh, my God. But we got Bradley Cooper as your. What are your thoughts on that? [00:24:43] Speaker B: Well, here's why. Here's why it made more sense because there's a history there, right? There's a collaborative history through the Guardians movies. And by all accounts, this is a cameo style role. This is not Marlon Brando. This is not even Russell Crowe. This is supposedly like a Nod to the mythology and something, you know, one day, you know, type of thing. Which leads to. Yeah, Bradley Cooper and James Gunner pals. Bradley Cooper would agree to do that. And it's. It's a nice nod. Physically, it kind of makes sense. Like he kind of does. Like if you. I don't know what I imagine a Kryptonian Jerrell would look like. I was like, yeah, I could see Bradley Cooper fitting into that pretty nicely. More so than Tom Cruise, quite honestly. So, yeah, I thought it made a lot of sense. And I think it's cool. I think it's a cool little thing. I think it's incontinent to, you know, the, the, the. The story and the movie as a whole. Probably. But it's nice. So. [00:25:42] Speaker A: Do you. Or have you thought about what sort of situation will we see that reveal. [00:25:52] Speaker B: Flashback would be my guess. Or in the fortress. And we know Jerrell is still programmed into the fortress. Right. Basically in all these versions. So one of those two. [00:26:11] Speaker A: It'll be interesting to see the Kryptonian clothing or how they portray. Is it like just a head figure like they did with Marlon Brando, or is it a full figured artificial being that you can see like they did with man of Steel? It'll be interesting to see what sort of get up they got him in. Yeah, he definitely looked like an interesting Kryptonian. Yeah. Let us know in the comment section below what you guys think of Bradley Cooper as Jarrell. I'm gonna hit that like anything else, Brian. [00:26:57] Speaker B: No, I think for Superman this was a good. A good. A good step, a little something. I still think we're gonna get. I don't think it'll be. I don't think it'll be 18th. I don't know what we're getting April 18th because there definitely was that reference from the Superman official. Superman counseling. I wonder what else will drop on April know. We'll see what that is. But I think the last full trailer, like I'm convinced is going to be more. I think it's going to be connected to the NBA playoffs. That's my prediction. It's like in that May June time frame ahead of the Jotly release, I think you'll get one more like trailer trailer, like a real. Like a two and a half minute trailer. That's the one that'll be the test of how much they're willing to keep under wraps. But. But this was. This was good, I think. And for the target audience with the Minecraft movie blowing up, that wound up being great. Move for them. [00:27:44] Speaker A: So I'm actually gonna go see it. [00:27:48] Speaker B: My. I am too. I haven't seen it yet, but my. We talked to my kid about it. She was like, yeah, I do want to go see it. So, see, they're getting sucked in. You know, like, she's like a casual player, but, like, she knows that's the thing. She know. She saw it and she was like, oh, that does look like all the characters. And I played it with her before too, but. But. So she's like, no, I do want to go see it. I was like, all right. And then I told her this was in front of it. Now, we watched this already. Which I told her this was in front of me. She's like, oh, yeah, I want to see that. You know, so. Yeah. [00:28:12] Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah. Let us know in the comments below what you guys think of the five minute Superman and Brandon Bradley Cooper being cast as Joel. How would I say? I guess, naturally, as we get closer to the release of Superman, the excitement will start to build, regardless of whether or not we've seen anything new. Because my interest is solely just to see this movie, see Superman from a director who really pays homage to the comics, how it looks, the style. He's a comic book head. So the curiosity is high and the excitement is creeping up because it's just a few months before we get to see this movie. [00:29:08] Speaker B: Apparently, you know, we talk about the marketing and maybe this is a good place to bring this in. They're fighting an uphill battle against those dinosaurs in terms of anticipation. I know for, you know, you and I had this discussion, right? We didn't put Jurassic World, Rebirth on our list of most anticipated, but we kind of acknowledged the dinosaur in the room, which is that it's going to be a big event. And come to find out, I think it was Rotten Tomatoes. Somebody did like a polling of the annual polling of the audience. What is your most anticipated summer movie and Jurassic World 1. Like, it's just sort of telling of like, dinosaurs still sell. Even bad dinosaur movies, which we hope this isn't. But, like, even bad dinosaur movies like Dominion make a billion dollars. So that's apparently the number one most anticipated movie. And sort of Fantastic Four, Superman, those are in that, like, three, four slot. I think Mission Impossible was the number two on that list. But so it kind of shows you, like, the marketing matters. Like, there's an up, like, for us we're there, but like, they gotta. They're fighting an uphill battle to get those movies to the top of that list in time for release. [00:30:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Let us know in the comment section below what you guys think of all this, and we'll see you next time on the Nerdgen Report.