First Look at Henry Cavill as SUPERMAN!

Hell of a week for Superman. Grounded finally ended, marking the end of the on-going Superman title before the big reboot, and then Morpheus from The Matrix was announced as his boss in the upcoming movie.

Today though, we get a look at the on-film version of the Man of Steel himself from…well, Man of Steel. Check it out.

I’m kind of on the fence about this one. Cavill looks pretty awesome in the suit, and the action posing is way better than those terribly misguided first shots of Brandon Routh in the suit. However much like the Superman Returns costume, this one has a strange, distracting texture to it, and the colors are again far, far too dark (even one of our favorite artists, Cully Hamner, agreed and upped the saturation in Photoshop to demonstrate why it should be brighter). There’s also something on the right leg, a plate of some kind, but I can’t make out what it is in this picture.

The hair is also a persistent issue that I had with Returns, and it looks like the problem carries over here; there’s just too damn much of it! The longer hair works when he’s Clark, but when you slick it back as Superman, it just becomes poofy and looks like a ridiculous helmet.

Nitpicks aside, I am digging this first shot. Superman looks like a total bad ass, which is one element I’m hopeful to see show up on the big screen, but there are so many other elements that need to be utilized for this movie to be a success. The Zack Snyder directed Man of Steel is still on track for a June 2013 release date, roughly 35 years since the original release of Superman: The Movie starring Christopher Reeve.

Update! The Source Blog includes this tidbit….

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures have provided the first look at the new “Man of Steel,” revealing star Henry Cavill as Superman in the film from director Zack Snyder.

The film also stars three-time Oscar® nominee Amy Adams (“The Fighter”) as Daily Planet journalist Lois Lane, and Oscar® nominee Laurence Fishburne (“What’s Love Got to Do with It”) as her editor-in-chief, Perry White. Starring as Clark Kent’s adoptive parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent, are Oscar® nominee Diane Lane (“Unfaithful”) and Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner (“Dances with Wolves”).

Squaring off against the superhero are two other surviving Kryptonians, the villainous General Zod, played by Oscar® nominee Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”), and Faora, Zod’s evil partner, played by Antje Traue. Also from Superman’s native Krypton are Lara Lor-Van, Superman’s mother, played by Julia Ormond, and Superman’s father, Jor-El, portrayed by Academy Award® winner Russell Crowe (“Gladiator”).

Rounding out the cast are Harry Lennix as U.S. military man General Swanwick, as well as Christopher Meloni as Colonel Hardy.

“Man of Steel” is being produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay was written by David S. Goyer, from a story by Goyer and Nolan, based upon Superman characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. Thomas Tull and Lloyd Phillips are serving as executive producers.

Currently in production, “Man of Steel” is slated for release on June 14, 2013 and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

So there’s the rest of your principle cast. No Lex? Surprising, to say the least, but he may still surprise us with a cameo in some capacity. Guess we’ll see in 2013!