The Super Bowl Movie Spots!

I've been putting off blogging about this for a while, but after chatting with a friend about this on IM, I figured it was time to sit down and do it.

I'm one of those guys who watches the Super Bowl for the commercials, and especially since  Hollywood has started putting together some Super Bowl spots for their summer blockbusters, giving us the first glimpse of a lot of these films.

So, here are the Super Bowl movie spots I was looking forward to, and my thoughts on them!

Captain America

I've always had a soft spot for ol' Cap, and I'm glad Marvel made a Captain America film a top priority.  I've always been intrigued by superhero films that are done as period pieces (which is why The Shadow and The Rocketeer are among my guilty pleasures), so I'm also thrilled that they decided to go back to Cap's origins and make his movie a full-blown World War II tale.  Speaking of The Rocketeer, The Rocketeer's director Joe Johnson is the director on this one.  Chris Evans, who's already dabbled in the Marvel Universe by playing the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four  films, is Steve Rogers/Captain America, and Hugo Weaving, still best remembered as Agent Smith in The Matrix Trilogy, is his arch-enemy the Red Skull.  It hits theatres July 22.

Thor

Marvel Comics also brings us their rendition of the Norse God of Thunder.  It's neat to see a superhero film as an epic fantasy tale, but as intriguing as this is, it hasn't fully grabbed me yet.  Kenneth Branagh, still legendary for his Shakespeare adaptations, is the director on this one.  Chris Hemsworth, who played Captain Kirk's daddy in Star Trek, plays the Thor, Tom Hiddleston is his arch-enemy Loki, and Natalie Portman is Jane Foster, Thor's human love interest.  Hits theatres this May.

 

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

And Michael Bay promises us he's bringing an end to his Transformers trilogy.  To recap my thoughts on the first two.  I enjoyed the heck out of the first one.  My childhood nostalgia was strong enough to overlook the flaws in the story.  The second one...was the first movie that pissed me off so much I wanted to throw things at the screen.  It's just a horrendous film.  That being said, the visuals in this trailer are giving me goosebumps.  Something about that large-scale Decepticon invasion looks amazing.  If the movie turns out to be crappy again, at least we've got some great special effects.  July 1.  

 

Cowboys and Aliens

The latest from Iron Man and Elf director Jon Favreau is getting a lot of buzz, but still hasn't quite grabbed me yet.  Favreau has been saying that these trailers are showing very little about the actual film, so as this campaign grows, I might get sucked in more.  Based on the graphic novel of the same name (with a script by Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman), it follows the adventures of a loner named Jake (played by James Bond himself, Daniel Craig) who awakens in the middle of the desert with a strange device attached to his wrist.  When his town soon becomes attacked by invaders from outer space, he rounds up a posse of Western archetypes to fend off the invasion.  Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde also star.  It also comes out this May.

Super 8

Still not much is known about this one.  All we know is J.J. Abrams (the Star Trek reboot, and creator of Alias and Fringe) teamed up with Steven Spielberg teamed up to make a film in the same vein of the films Spielberg produced in the 1980s under his Amblin Entertainment label.  You know, E.T., The Goonies, Back to the Future, and such forth.  And, based on the opening shot of this trailer with the kid on the bike and the music, I'd say they're on the right track.  This one comes out June 10.