Super Bowl Trailer Thoughts

Ahh, Super Bowl Sunday.  That frosty first Sunday in February that typically focuses on top-notch football, hilarious commercials, showstopping halftime performances, and of course, all of the delicious fried fare you can handle.  This year, what we got was…something different.  In this case, when I say “something different,” I could be referring to a few particularly ignominious records (longest punt, lowest final score, and first Super Bowl with no touchdowns in the first three quarters among them).  I could also be referring to an ad slate with a general dearth of memorable humor.  And of course, I could also be referring to the trainwreck of a halftime show, complete with a downright criminal SpongeBob bait-and-switch, an Adam Levine strip-show that no one was asking for, and the jarring genre-mix that recent Super Bowl halftime performances have unfortunately come to be known for.  In the midst of it all, though, we managed to see a number of spots and trailers for some of the more high-profile films being released this year (and a number of additional spots for some highly anticipated TV shows, but for now let’s stick to the feature-length teasers), and that’s what I’m here to talk about.

Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw – I wanted to start with this one because…well, there are a lot of reasons.  It’s becoming increasingly difficult to make an argument for whatever the latest installment in the totally bonkers Fast and Furious franchise is as being any kind of meaningful cinematic achievement, but there’s no denying their success, and one of the many ways in which this is evident – outside of the franchise’s eye-popping box office totals – is in its seemingly constant stream of big-name cast additions.  This time around, Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation, Thor: Ragnarok) joins the ever-expanding Fast and Furious ensemble as a seemingly bulletproof antagonist, and it’s hard to tell if he’ll stick around for more than one film, but what’s clear is that the film he’s in – a long-awaited jaunt that pairs two of the franchise’s more charismatic adversaries acting as unlikely allies – is going to be absolutely absurd.

Avengers: Endgame – Given this spot’s meager 30-second runtime, there’s not a whole lot to see here.  It all appears to be previously unseen footage, sure, but it doesn’t tell us a whole lot more about what we can expect from Endgame come April – for those who think the “Tony Stark welding” shot indicates his escape from the imminent stranded-in-space demise portended in the film’s first trailer, think again: it’s clear that he’s still on the ship we see him on in that initial trailer, and still with Nebula to boot.  It’s generally more of the same, and continues to telegraph the idea that Endgame is likely to be centered on how the old guard of Captain America, Black Widow, The Hulk, etc. cope with the loss of so many others more than anything else.  In any case, I actually think the spot’s lack of revelatory tidbits is great if anything, and in the leadup to what may be one of the most anticipated films of the year (really, Star Wars? No Super Bowl spot?), it does exactly what it needs to.

Captain Marvel – I don’t have much to say about this one, given that we don’t see a whole lot new here – it’s essentially a 30-second ad featuring footage from the first two trailers (after all, the movie comes out in about a month now), all scored by the seeming mantra of “higher, further, faster.”  Frankly, I remain unenthused, and have a hard time imagining this film attaining the lofty heights of some of its more successful compatriots in the MCU, and furthermore, of its direct competitor in DC’s stellar 2017 hit Wonder Woman.  Captain Marvel is being billed as the missing piece of the MCU’s puzzle, and a piece that will aid in saving a number of the lost souls mentioned above, but it remains unclear to me what exactly her powers are.

Us – Like the Captain Marvel spot, we see essentially no new footage here, but that’s more than OK.  Jordan Peele – who was also featured in an especially creative and mysterious ad for the Twilight Zone reboot, which he will be producing and hosting – is on a roll, and he’s had his hooks in me and many other Get Out fans since the first trailer for Us dropped back in December as a Christmas gift to horror fans.  Based on what I can see from this spot and from the first trailer, Peele is making a strong promise of more imaginative thrills propelled by a sharp cast featuring Winston Duke (Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther), Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale, Mad Men), and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave, Black Panther).

Toy Story 4 – My fear with another installment in the Toy Story series is that Pixar will soil the pristinely emotional ending of the third film, and ending that hit me especially hard given that I had just graduated high school at the time Toy Story 3 came out (seriously – those were some powerfully relevant feels).  This spot did little to calm my nerves on that front, but in fairness, Toy Story 4 is doing all it can to keep my expectations high, with the return of the voice cast we know and love (also adding too many big names to even list) along with the sparkling promise of that signature Pixar touch.  Buzz Lightyear being trapped as a potential prize in a carnival game is just the latest way in which the premise of these films is the gift that keeps on giving.

Alita: Battle Angel – Although this movie appears poised to present a rich cyberpunk environment for its manga-inspired characters, and features what could be a strong supporting turn from a surging Mahershala Ali, I’m not grabbed.  James Cameron (serving as writer/producer) is obviously a big deal, but he also seems to be a filmmaker constantly toeing the line drawn at the tenuous balance point4 between meaningful cinema and mindless spectacle, and early mixed reviews suggest that he may have finally edged too close to the latter.  Also, the big eyes thing is really creepy – just saying.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – Disclaimer here: I’ve never read the book series that inspires visionary director Guillermo del Toro‘s latest work (he produced and helped pen the screenplay).  Scary Stories‘ presence during the big game broadcast was in the form of a number of 10-second glimpses of the film, which leads me to believe it to be more of a Black Mirror-ish anthology than it actually is.  The occasionally horrific imagery includes a mummy and/or zombie shuffling down a green hallway, a spooky-looking…woman shuffling down a red hallway, a…thing kicking down a door, and a high-schooler who appears to have to deal with an especially pernicious blackhead.  It’s a little hard to analyze beyond that, if I’m being honest.

Wonder Park – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies have come together on an animated feature releasing later this year that was deemed worthy of some Super Bowl airtime.  With a promising cast of voice actors featuring the likes of Jennifer Garner, Kenan Thompson, John Oliver, Mila Kunis, Ken Jeong, and Matthew Broderick, Wonder Park tells the story of a girl whose dream of inventing and operating her own amusement park comes to life.  It’s a goofy but potentially far-reaching premise, and while I’m not typically one for animation not made by Pixar (see above), this trailer has its share of moments.  My biggest concern at this point is the extremely unimaginative title, but I should probably give this a bit of a break seeing as it’s supposedly a name born in the mind of a youngster.

Looking at this slate of trailers, it’s hard not to feel that 2019’s offering pales in comparison to 2018, a year that featured spots for Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Solo: A Star Wars Story, A Quiet Place, Skyscraper, Red Sparrow, and of course, The Cloverfield Paradox, which not only served as a trailer, but also as an announcement that the film would be ready to stream that night (and, incidentally, turned out to be not that great).  We can just throw this meager allotment of cinematic teasers on the pile of reasons that Super Bowl 53 was, simply put, not great.