While the Seahawks can finally head home to celebrate their victory, the competition for movie audiences has only just begun. Aaron Paul, mechanical dinosaurs, vats of electric eels: This year’s round of Super Bowl movie spots did not disappoint. But did any of them stand out? We’ve collected them below for your consideration.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
What’s fast, strong, and has a metal arm? The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers’s mysterious new adversary in the upcoming Captain America sequel. As if waking up from decades-long suspended animation and adjusting to life in modern-day D.C. isn’t hard enough. When not narrowly avoiding death, Chris Evans pals around with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Anthony Mackie as the Falcon, whose bionic wings span the thin line between “over the top” and “exactly the kind of thing you want in a superhero sequel.”
Transformers: Age of Extinction
As expected, Michael Bay’s soft reboot of the Transformers franchise looks remarkably similar to the previous three installments. Based on the movie’s Super Bowl spot, the differences seem to be Mark Wahlberg’s frantic father replacing Shia LaBeouf’s character as the new lead, a more eerily humanoid design for the Autobots and, most importantly, the introduction of the Dinobots. Those Dinobots don’t look too shabby, if you’re into that kind of thing.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Never, ever, ever keep important equipment above an open tank of live electric eels. If you absolutely must, please do not let Spider-Man-obsessed nerds clamor over said tank or they will turn into Jamie Foxx’s Electro. It’s just asking for trouble. Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man also seems to be asking for trouble in the new Amazing Spider-Man 2 “Enemies Unite” trailer, acting cocky even as he struggles with his secret identity excuses. Washing an American flag? Cleaning out a chimney? Aunt May wasn’t born yesterday.
Pompeii
This CG-soaked disaster epic from Paul W.S. Anderson initially recalls Renny Harlin’s recent, disastrous Hercules movie starring Kellan Lutz, but eventually Kit Harrington’s shirtless gladiator has more pressing matters to deal with: There’s a volcano going off and he’s got to hightail it to the harbor. We would have given bonus points to this ad if it had somehow managed to work in Bastille’s single by the same name, but alas.
Noah
In Pompeii, our heroes must head to the water, but Noah suggests that H2O provides no safe harbor. Russell Crowe plays the biblical hero who rounds up Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson and works on his ark for so long that his hair grows from buzz-cut to a gray beard/honey-blond long-hair combo that even Willie Nelson would envy. There are some striking shots here, but can you sense the hand of director Darren Aronofsky amidst all that computer-generated spectacle?
3 Days to Kill
Kevin Costner looked at Liam Neeson’s late-career resurgence, thought, “I can do that,” and now he has his own action vehicle whispering menaced threats at baddies while defending his daughter’s honor from weird Euro pervs. The best part of this trailer: watching Kevin Costner embody macho Pittsburgh attitude while contrarily wearing a jaunty periwinkle scarf.
Monuments Men
This ad for the impending George Clooney historical caper touts its starry cast, but minimizes poor Jean Dujardin, who’s way too French to figure into an ad that airs during middle America’s favorite excuse to eat buffalo wings. Things agreeably conclude with Matt Damon stepping onto a land mine that does not go off, making this the unique Super Bowl ad that goes out of its way to actually avoid an explosion.
Draft Day
More Costner! This time, he’s paired with Jennifer Garner in a football comedy and doling out high fives instead of ass-kickings. Keep an eye out for Denis Leary’s cameo as a human tomato.
Need for Speed
The Super Bowl spot for Aaron Paul’s upcoming car chase film offers us something none of the other trailer’s can offer: Aaron Paul driving a car off a cliff, only to have it carried away by a helicopter. Something to consider.
RoboCop
The RoboCop remake trailer popped up a few days ago, most likely because the movie opens on February 12. The Killing’s Joel Kinnaman stars as the titular mechanical law man, built to maintain justice in a lawless city. His mask and suit are more than a little reminiscent of Alien. There are also motorcycles and lasers.