Super Bowl Movie Ad Report Card: Super 8, Captain America and 12 More

Cowboys and Aliens

Some clever editor found a way to sneak in some footage of Olivia Wilde naked here! Otherwise, this ad for this apparently very serious film about cowboys fighting aliens wasn't anywhere near as effective as the first trailer.

Grade: C

Fast 5

I feel like the music should have been much louder in this trailer.

Grade: C+

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

This one looks like a welcome return to the humor and adventure that first made the series popular. On the other hand, it's twice as long as most of the other spots, which doesn't bode well for the whole economy-of-story thing.

Grade: B

Rango

This spot gives a nice feel for the movie's tone without using it's entire running time to flash-cut a billion images together. Nice work.

Grade - B+

Rio

As far as CGI animal movies that begin with the letter "R" go, Rango looks much better.

Grade: C-

Battle: Los Angeles

Nothing new here, but this alien invasion-flick still looks solid. If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Grade: B

Drive Angry 3-D

Just what a 3-D action movie about Nicolas Cage escaping from hell needed: Critical review blurbs!

Grade: C+

Limitless

It seems like they could have gone a much more creative route here and perhaps made another fake advertisement? Instead the marketing team went with this bland spot that just made me wonder why we still haven't gotten a White Noise adaptation.

Grade: D

Priest

A few points for the ironic Depeche Mode song used in what looks like another man-fights-God's army movie from Legion director Scott Charles Stuart. Not enough sad faces though.

Grade: C-

The Adjustment Bureau

Is this movie actually coming out? Anyway, here's more of the same footage that we've been seeing in previews for what feels like two years.

Grade: D

Just Go with It

Weird. I could have sworn this was a beer commercial. Apparently it's an ad for the new Adam Sandler movie? I still find this very strange.

Grade: F

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Comments

  • Auga says:

    It's so sad but I'm really excited for Transformers! It looks awesome!

  • Brian Clark says:

    I feel weird about it too.

  • Wackenhut says:

    Wait - seriously? There's nothing about that Transformers 3 spot that looks remotely different from the last two (besides a new Megan Fox), but Super 8 looks like E.T.? Come on. That Super 8 ad was the best thing on last night...

  • Brian Clark says:

    I could understand what was happening in this Transformers spot, which was new. The movie will probably still not be very good.
    And yeah, I got E.T. vibes from the Super 8 trailer. You didn't? The Spielberg sounding music (which I think is actually from Cocoon) that didn't go with the action at all, nostalgia bike-riding shots, kid finding an alien, government threatening kid who finds alien and so on. It may still be good, I'm just looking at the ads here.

  • Christopher Rosen says:

    Agree to disagree about Super 8. I found that to be a perfect teaser. The music -- I read that about Cocoon too, but I'm having a hard time actually locating the cue; any help, commenters? -- was perfect precisely because it doesn't go with the action at all. (I also liked how it was dominant to all the other sounds from the action.)
    In the LA Times piece on Super 8, it gets compared to E.T. and The Goonies, with Coach Taylor as the good ol' fashioned tough dad trying to connect with his young son in the wake of a tragedy. That + aliens + all the other stuff Abrams is selling here speaks to me on the level of win.
    The Transformers ad campaign has been brilliant, too. That "announcement trailer" was really top notch and this was even better. I like that we're only seeing what appears to be one set piece -- a giant throw down in Chicago. Really not showing very much, except the scale, which is EPIC. Bay, FTW.

  • Sarah says:

    The only thing I really noticed about the Super 8 trailer was Coach Taylor, and that's pretty much all I need to know. When can I buy a ticket?

  • Lee Harvey says:

    They all look pretty bad. Only "Super 8" shows any promise.

  • Mooshki says:

    I would have been surprised by the F&F 5 a year ago, but I liked #4. I'm sad Michelle Rodriguez is gone, though. 🙁