There's a shot in the Superman Returns trailer that's startling for all the wrong reasons. In it, we see a crane shot of 40 or so extras all staring skyward—silent, still, awed.
What did I find so jarring about this modest shot? It's real. Peter Jackson or George Lucas would have given us a gaudy, sweeping shot of tens of thousands of squirming people—"Look! Matte paintings can't squirm like this!"—which of course our eyes have already learned to perceive as fake. Their self-indulgent, top-this shots make me think "Look at all the CGI people." The Superman shot, in contrast, made me think "I wonder what they're looking at?"
More, please.