Super Bowl 52 is in the books. There was a lot to enjoy about this sporting event — we had a really fun, dramatic game, there were quality commercials, and we got a number of movie trailers.
Recently, it seems like we’ve been deprived of trailers during the big game. It’s a couple here and there, and most of them are trailers we’ve seen multiple times.
This year we got a number of surprises — including the surprise Solo teaser, and Netflix dropping the new Cloverfield trailer, and then releasing it the same day. Of course, not all the trailers were the cream of the crop.
So let’s get down to ranking the Super Bowl movie trailers.
8. Skyscraper
Release Date: July 13
Starring: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Pablo Schreiber, Neve Campbell, Byron Mann
Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re the Millers, Central Intelligence)
So, here it is, the annual big, dumb Dwayne Johnson action movie. To be fair, The Rock has given audiences plenty of surprises over the years (e.g. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), but this one just looks like a really expensive remake of Die Hard … with The Rock’s character having a prosthetic leg. Yes, that’s a thing. The Rock is going to give it his all like he does every year, but this trailer was about as big, dumb, and loud as the trailer for his other release this year, Rampage. Which’ll be worse? Hopefully I’ll never find out.
7. Red Sparrow
Release Date: March 2
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Mary Louise Parker, Charlotte Rampling, Ciaran Hands, Jeremy Irons, Joely Richardson
Directed by: Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games – Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1, Mockingjay Part 2)
Have you seen Luc Besson’s classic La Femme Nikita? Or the American remake, Point of No Return? Or watched Black Widow’s origin story in Avengers? If you’ve answered yes to any of these, then you’ve pretty much seen Red Sparrow. This premise is about as generic as generic gets. Young woman recruited from a young age to be an assassin, and things go wrong — now everyone is after her. Yawn. This trailer was as pedestrian as the plot description.
6. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (aka Jurassic World 2)
Release Date: June 22
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum, Ted Levine, James Cromwell, Geraldine Chaplin, Toby Jones, Rafe Spall, BD Wong
Director: J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls, The Orphanage)
So this was an extremely messy, but interesting trailer. First, let’s talk about the whole A Nightmare on Elm Street beginning of this trailer. So, is this a weird dream sequence like in Jurassic Park 3? Or have dinosaurs come to the mainland and are stalking people in their homes like a serial killer? Cause either way, it’s super weird. This trailer was a definite step up from that bad first trailer, but again this reveals way too much, and is really all over the place. And are they really doing the whole “we’re bringing dinosaurs back to civilization” gimmick like in The Lost World? It was bad then, and it’s going to be bad again.
5. Avengers: Infinity War
Release Date: May 4, 2018
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Chadwick Boseman, Tessa Thompson, Danai Gurira, Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Linda Cardellini, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany, Benicio del Toro, Paul Rudd, Colbie Smulders, Angela Bassett, Jon Favreau, Anthony Mackie, Sean Gunn, Sebastian Stan
Directed by: The Russo Brothers (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
I know I’m going to get a lot of heat for this, but this trailer was just okay. Marvel hyped us all up for it, and in the end there was nothing special about this trailer. It was the same thing as the first trailer — shots of various Marvel superheroes in scenes together, some of which we saw already, and them all racing to fight something. That’s it. I know we’re all stoked for this film to come out, so we can see how all these characters will come together. But, let’s be honest with ourselves for a second. Was this a good trailer? Did it really provide you with any more insight? Did it really show you anything new? Or was this merely a reminder that this movie is coming out. I’m a Marvel fan. I’m all in on this movie, but this trailer was really pedestrian, and if you take a minute to push your excitement for this movie aside, you’ll realize I’m right.
4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Release Date: July 27
Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Vanessa Kirby
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation)
This will be higher on my list than for most. I’m an unabashed Mission: Impossible fan. Okay, the second film was hot garbage, but I believe that’s nearly a universal truth now. This trailer did what every good M:I trailer does — it shows insane stunts, lots of action, Tom Cruise running, and gives you an inkling of the incredibly unpredictable plot headed your way. It also was the teaser, that pointed you to the full trailer online, so job well done.
3. A Quiet Place
Release Date: April 6
Starring: John Krasinki, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe
Directed by: John Krasinki
In our Most Anticipated Films of 2018 podcast, I had this film ranked at #10 based on the first trailer that dropped. This Super Bowl spot has launched this movie way up this list. The basic conceit of this film, written, directed and starring John Krasinski, is that there are beings that hunt based on sound. The leads (Krasinki, Blunt and two children) MUST be quiet at all times or else they could die. This trailer isn’t as frightening as the original, but it explains more of the story, and gives us a glimpse of the hunters. This can prove to be problematic sometimes, but it works here. This trailer is intense as hell, and I think it’ll open a lot of people’s eyes to what could be an awesome film.
2. Solo: A Star Wars Story
Release Date: May 25
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson
Directed by: Ron Howard (Backdraft, A Beautiful Mind)
Referring back to our Most Anticipated Films of 2018 podcast, I was very open about my reservations about this film. Do we really need a Han Solo film? What could this film possibly show us? Do we really need to see him meeting Lando? Or being in the Kessel Run? Honestly, my hype on this film was super low. But this teaser changed my mind. First, hats off to Disney for messing with us. They said the full trailer would drop the day after the Super Bowl and it will. However, they never said anything about this. The film looks interesting as hell. The shots were great. The magic was there. Will the full trailer be any good? I don’t know, but this teaser has me super hyped for it. (Writer’s Note: Watched the trailer…not as hyped anymore)
1. The Cloverfield Paradox
Release Date: February 4
Starring: Daniel Bruhl, Chris O’Dowd, David Oyelowo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Elizabeth Debicki, Ziyi Zhang
Directed by: Julius Onah (The Girl is in Trouble)
Holy. Cow. For weeks we’ve heard rumblings that Netflix might acquire the rights to distribute the latest in the Cloverfield franchise. The film was rumored to have a fall 2017 release date, and then it was bumped to February of this year — but for a theatrical release. The film was supposedly titled God Particle, and was eventually reworked into the Cloverfield universe. There was so much mystery surrounding this film, and then BOOM…the trailer drops out of nowhere. It was mysterious as hell, just like the original trailer. It’s “coming very soon” tease sent us all into the Twittersphere trying to find out if the rumors of a post-Super Bowl release were true. It made us all want that excellent game to just end so we could watch the movie. Henceforth, this was easily the best and most effective trailer of the night.
Oh yeah we’ve already reviewed it.
