Extended looks of the Super Bowl movie ads

Posted Monday, February 4, 2013 at 3:16 PM Central

by John Couture

So, Super Bowl XLVII is now in the record books and there sure is plenty to talk about. Whether it's the commercials, Beyoncé's halftime gyration or the 34 minute power outage in the third quarter, one thing is certain, this Super Bowl will be talked about for years to come.

Naturally, the one aspect of the big game that appealed to us the most was the commercials for upcoming films. With some of the biggest upcoming films taking part, it was a great opportunity to get excited about some of the Summer's biggest movies.

Tim teased us last week with what we could look forward to, but here we've got all the extended looks (which seemed to be the 'it' thing this year) and our quick hit thoughts on the ads.

We tried to procure them all in no particular order, but if you think we missed a few (I have to admit that I didn't watch the entire 12 hour pregame show), let us know and we'll update this list.

World War Z

The strategy was pretty simple on this one. Let's make sure and get as much Brad Pitt and as many explosions as possible on the screen in 30 seconds. There's really not much here that we didn't have in the trailer released late last year. In fact, there's much less.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Again, much like the one before it, this ad is simply a re-hash of the greatest hits from the full-length trailer. However, Benedict Cumberbatch's voice over is just creepy enough to get us excited. I imagine the Trekkers will enjoy the iconic scanning beep that is also in the trailer.

Paramount also took the spotlight to give a shout out to its Star Trek Into Darkness app that is actually pretty cool and gives you a chance to see the film early, so that's pretty cool.

The Lone Ranger

Disney took an interesting route by sponsoring the pregame show on behalf of The Lone Ranger in exchange for 90 seconds of valuable airtime right before the game started. I have to say that they took full advantage of this opportunity.

The extended look included a bunch of new footage and a new voice over intro that does the best job so far of getting me excited for this film. As a film that I think could be in serious jeopardy of bombing (more on this to come), this spot might just save it from obscurity.

Oz: The Great and Powerful

Disney goes two-for-two as it shows it also knows how to hype a movie in the more traditional 30 second spot. A great blend of new material and quick cuts of big action sequences build to a nice crescendo. It's hard to sell anything in 30 seconds, but after this finished, my wife declared the film a must see.

The Fast and the Furious 6

I'm not a huge Fast and Furious fan, so this trailer was just sort of blah for me. All I know is that one of the films takes place in Tokyo and the rest of them are basically the same movie. This looks more of the same. If it's your thing, then you probably enjoyed the trailer. If not, then like me you were reaching for the fast forward button.

Iron Man 3

Marvel did a good job of using the check out an extended clip online hook. It's something that has been popular with other Super Bowl ads for years, but apparently it's now just catching on with film studios.

Of course, an extended commercial is really just a trailer. But Marvel doesn't like to be pigeon-holed like that. No, they had fun with their "extended look" as you can see below.

Snitch

At this point, one thing is clear, Dwayne Johnson is in a lot movies this Spring. Again, if you're a fan, then you're in heaven. For me, it's more like hell, but this clip actually looks decent for a film that won't make back its budget most likely.

So, what films were missing that I was hoping to see? Well, I would have liked to have seen first look footage from The Hangover Part III. It comes out in three months and we've literally seen nothing from it.

Not that it needs the help, but a cool clip from Catching Fire would have sent the Internet into a tizzy. Pacific Rim is probably the one film that would have benefited most from a Super Bowl ad. It's a film that is easy to overlook and its title does absolutely nothing to convey what the film is about.