Super Bowl LVIII movie trailers, ranked

Everyone with a TV saw the new trailers for Deadpool 3, Twisters, and IF, but which one was the best?

By Sam Barsanti  |  February 12, 2024 | 3:24am
Film Features Super Bowl
Super Bowl LVIII movie trailers, ranked
Clockwise from top left: The Fall Guy, Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, Twisters, Despicable Me 4, A Quiet Place: Day One, IF, Wicked, Deadpool & Wolverine (Screenshots: YouTube) Image: The A.V. Club

Some people watch the Super Bowl for the football, some people watch for the halftime show, and some people even watch just for the commercials (gotta see what new innovations are coming to Doritos this year), but plenty of people just tune in for a specific kind of commercial: movie trailers. Nerds of a certain age remember exactly how hyped they were when they first saw the Matrix Reloaded trailer during the Super Bowl in 2003, and we’re all still trying to chase that high.

This year’s Super Bowl trailers aren’t as life-changing as The Matrix Reloaded, but at least we finally got a look at the new Deadpool movie (not to mention its new full title, Deadpool & Wolverine). And here they all are, conveniently arranged in this slideshow from worst to best.

A Quiet Place: Day One
A Quiet Place: Day One | Big Game Spot (2024 Movie) - Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn

Has anyone ever really wondered how the alien invasion from the Quiet Place movies began? They kind of addressed it in the originals, but this new prequel is all about those first few hours when people realized that the monsters were drawn to sound and that they would have to turn the world into a quieter place if they wanted to survive. The big draw here seems to be the scale and spectacle of it, with tons of creatures rampaging through New York City, but it’s not necessarily dramatic enough to make a huge Super Bowl impact.

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | Official Trailer

The apes are back, and this time they’ve got a whole kingdom. We’re getting closer to the world of the original Planet Of The Apes in this reboot franchise, assuming this is all part of the same canon as those earlier Apes reboot movies, with the apes talking about building a society and capturing humans and that sort of thing. As for this trailer … once you’ve seen a trailer for an Apes movie, you’ve kinda seen them all.

IF
IF | ‘Real’ Spot (2024 Movie) - Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Steve Carell

With the Quiet Place series going on without him, John Krasinski has moved on to the kid-friendly IF—which is about a little girl who develops the ability to see everyone’s IFs (or “Imaginary Friends”). The movie cheated a little, releasing a TV ad based around the old Office joke that Randall Park is actually John Krasinski, but then they released a regular ad on YouTube as well. It’s all fine, if you like Ryan Reynolds when he plays a normal guy who is not Deadpool.

The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy | Everything

The “this film has everything” framing device is fun, particularly since the trailer goes in a silly direction with it (“Ice” and “Ice crimes”?), but it loses it a bit with the “Ryan M@th?RF#*&!NG Gosling” thing. Lots of movies have him, it’s not that exciting … but then it gets a little redeemed with “Emily M@th?RF#*&!NG Blunt. The movie still looks fun, despite that!

Wicked
Wicked - First Look

If you, hypothetically, are the kind of person who has not yet been Wicked-pilled, this trailer may seem like a lot to take in. Cynthia Erivo is very green. And the brief glimpse of the fake Wizard face looks like when Michael Bay would zoom in tight on one of the Transformers (this is a compliment). They certainly seem to be swinging for the fences, at least, which is a good sign for a highly anticipated adaptation like this.

Despicable Me 4
Despicable Me 4 - Minion Intelligence (Big Game Spot)

The Jon Hamm voiceover is a funny conceit, and framing this as some exciting Google-y innovation is funny, and the ultimate reveal that AI art is bad because it’s made by the Minions is also funny. The ruling on the field, then, is that this is funny. Go Minions! Ba-na-na! Generative AI is evil and should be eradicated!

Deadpool & Wolverine
Deadpool & Wolverine | Official Teaser | In Theaters July 26

Other than actually showing Wolverine, this trailer offers pretty much everything we could’ve wanted out of a Deadpool 3—sorry, Deadpool & Wolverine—teaser. It’s got meta jokes, it’s got adult humor, it’s got references to MCU canon to address the fact that Deadpool is in the MCU now (they’re in the TVA from Loki!), so there’s not much to complain about … but it would’ve been nice to really see Logan.

 
Join the discussion...