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Well, the Transformers ad didn't have any robots or dogs humping, so...

Kim Hollis: What are your impressions of the movie commercials from the Super Bowl?

Josh Spiegel: I'd say that most of them looked uninvolving, but there were a few winners. My favorites were Super 8 (Coach Taylor gets to be in a blockbuster!) and Cowboys and Aliens. Both offered similar stuff to the other blockbusters, but something about the footage in these two seemed more special. Super 8, of course, gets extra points for not only being directed by JJ Abrams, but also being technically original, something pretty much every other summer movie can't claim. Sign me up.

Max Braden: Cowboys & Aliens looks great to me, but I wonder if there were a large part of the audience thinking Hollywood has lost its mind. Transformers 3 looks darkly good, but I think I was probably impressed by the trailer for 2 but was let down by the movie itself. Pirates 4 was the same way - I keep wanting to see them because of the trailer but except for the 1st movie they've been letdowns. There was a second Chevy Transformers tie-in after the game that was decent. The Captain America ad made me want to see it, because of the WWII scientist vibe and warfare action. Thor less so. Super 8 was interesting in that they were playing fairy tale music over the dramatic images from the movie. That gave it a real Spielberg stamp, but I preferred the teaser from last year which went for the scare factor. And I've been waiting for Battle: LA since the first trailer. One thing I like about it and other monster movies like District 9 is when they give you very wide shots of the aliens/craft/and battles as part of the overall environment; it helps add to the realism for me.





Brett Beach: No interest in more Transformers. No interest in the super hero movies. No interest in the latest Independence Day mutation. Less interest than that in the latest Jack Sparrow. Cowboys and Aliens gets me excited because I take it on faith that Jon Favreau has once again made a blockbuster that is at least worth considering. I didn't get a chance to see the Super 8 trailer.

I don't know when else I may have a chance to just let the disappointment roll out all at once so - glancing at this year' major slate of releases, weekend by weekend, as it stands now, leaves me less interested with what they are offering than at any point I can recall in my post-adolescent and adult life. April 8th could be uncharacteristically awesome (Arthur, Hanna, Your Highness). I am eagerly awaiting the latest Malick on Memorial Day weekend. There are blips of excitement here and there, but I am guessing I am going to be turning to independent films whose names I don't even know yet for most of my cinematic satisfaction.

Reagen Sulewski: Personally I thought it was a solid bunch of movie ads. Pirates of the Caribbean will fare much better relieved of the burden of trying to cram the Keira Knightley/Orlando Bloom storyline in, and just have fun with its adventure setting. Super 8 definitely has that feel of 1980 action-adventure, though it probably doesn't fit well in a 30 second spot. I'm intrigued to see what they can pull off in a longer trailer. Battle: Los Angeles has had me since that wordless first teaser, but this is the non-shaky cam Cloverfield that I think we've all been looking for. I'm also quite jazzed for Cowboys and Aliens, though that has a lot of potential to fall on its face.

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