A Reel Review: The Super Bowl Movie Trailers - The Good, The Bad, & The Glorious

The Super Bowl has been traditionally an opportunity for movie studios to begin marketing their upcoming releases for the year. New movie trailers have become a part of Super Bowl lore just as much as the parties, commercials, and the coin flip. It also serves as a rite of Spring; a hint of the fun Summer movies to bring us warm thoughts in February. 

This year however, many studios seem to have taken Super Sunday off. Each year nearly 10 trailers have their debuts; this year only eight, with most of them only 30 seconds long and airing before the game even started. Perhaps studios are re-thinking spending millions of dollars for 30 seconds of air time? Either way, what we got still finds its way into The Good, The Bad, & The Glorious. Here’s how they played out…

THE GOOD

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK – This took many of us by surprise. It was the first look at this horror film, produced by Guillermo del Toro (THE SHAPE OF WATER). It was creepy, effective, and got its message across. 

HOBBS AND SHAW – The first spin-off to the never-ending FAST AND THE FURIOUS franchise debuted its full trailer online earlier in the week, and this quick spot was a re-edit of that trailer and showcased the nuttiness that these movies have been known for. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham were all over the trailer and sold it. 

US – Jordan Peele’s newest film since GET OUT showed a quick spot with no new footage, but still very creepy. 

CAPTAIN MARVEL – Marvel’s next super-adventure was mostly re-edited footage from previous trailers but was packed with that Marvel fun and flash. 

THE BAD

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL – No one seems to know what to make of this CGI heavy sci-fi romp directed by Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY) and produced by James Cameron (TITANIC, AVATAR)…and this messy trailer didn’t help much. Just lights and noise. 

WONDER PARK – This was like watching soup in a blender; frenetic, chaotic, no structure. 

TOY STORY 4 – This trailer for the latest adventure of Woody and Buzz wasn’t terrible on its own, and the animation looked great as always, but this gets negative points for its placement; it ran after the game was over and likely when most people had turned it off.

You get negative points for not showing up for work. There were notable absences from upcoming high-profile films such as LEGO MOVIE 2, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 3, PET SEMATARY, JOHN WICK 3, DC Comics’ SHAZAM, and Disney’s DUMBO, THE LION KING, and ALADDIN. 

THE GLORIOUS

AVENGERS: ENDGAME – The most epic superhero series of all time unveiled a brand-new trailer before kickoff, and basically gave Marvel the win before the game even started. The short spot gave us brand new footage; showing a decimated world and shell-shocked heroes…or at least the heroes that survived the events of INFINITY WAR. The trailer shows a dark and cold world, but thanks to a quick glimpse of Captain America finally getting his lost shield back…we are assured that warmth is coming. 

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Super Bowl LIV will be played February 2^nd, 2020.