As entertaining as the game
As everyone sets their sights on Super Bowl 50, major companies are also looking to grab the spotlight during the nation's, if not the world's, most-watched television event of the year.
With a $5 million price tag for just 30 seconds of air, every brand has to put forth the biggest, silliest, or most elaborate ad it can muster, and some big names in tech are throwing their hats in the ring this year among the usual cast of cheap beer and corn chip products.
Add to that a number of high-profile TV spots and trailers for the year's biggest blockbuster movies, and even people that hate sport have something to look forward to.
We've collected the best spots already available for your viewing pleasure, so grab some cheap beer and corn chip products, and enjoy!
- The countdown to Super Bowl 52 has begun. See how you can stream Super Bowl 2018 online for free.
T-Mobile will still call you on your cellphoooone
Digging up an old meme is typically the MO for a corporation desperately grasping at the youth demographic, but we can't help but find the charm in Drake reviving his quirky moves and undeniably huggable sweater from the Hotline Bling music video.
The R&B singer's affable mocking of competing phone carriers isn't the only thing T-Mobile has planned for the Super Bowl, as it has also teased a second commercial. The short promo only shows us what won't be in it, however.
Amazon Echo and Alec Baldwin: together at last?
While not the "real" ad per se, Amazon's teasers for its upcoming Super Bowl spot already combine two great properties - Alec Baldwin, seemingly channeling his Jack Donaghy character from 30 Rock, and the Amazon Echo.
The two other teasers follow Baldwin's efforts to throw the perfect Super Bowl party, assisted by Echo's built-in AI, Alexa. While we look forward to seeing if Alec's get-together is a success this weekend, we wonder if he's aware that Alexa also knows how to order pizza.
Apartments.com has struck Goldblum
In this ad for the online housing search service, national treasure Jeff Goldblum adopts his persona as Apartments.com's self-ascribed Silicon Valley Maverick, Brad Bellflower.
This more or less gives him carte blanche to gallivant on a flying piano as he sings about the joys of "movin' on up" to a better home, as roomies, newlyweds, and families find new places to live throughout the course of the commercial.
Oh, yeah, and Lil' Wayne shows up. Apparently, Weezy makes a dang fine apple pie. George Washington also makes an appearance ... what was this an ad for, again?
PayPal tells old money to move over
We can't think of a name for this style of commercial, but you know it when you see it. Thumpingkumi-daiko drums, fast edits, and an in-your-face attitude are the calling card of these advertisements, typically reserved for athletic brands, like Nike.
Does this style of ad work for a payment service, though? Surprisingly, yes.
PayPal's threat of replacing your money of yore seems to gel just fine with the hustle and bustle of those triumphant horns, chants and drum beats. It's kind of like Pokémon's 20th anniversary Super Bowl spot - it's engineered from the start to pump us up, and we can't help but get chills.
Wix.com gets the DreamWorks treatment
Wix brought in the help of DreamWorks animators to entwine their "drag-and-drop" website creator with the latest entry in the Kung-Fu Panda movie trilogy. The CG-animated short stars Po in parodies of famous Super Bowl ads in an attempt to draw customers to his adoptive father's noodle shack.
DreamWorks apparently had a field day with this, as it made not one, not two, not three, but four other shorts with Wix, in which the Po-tagonist tries other methods of repping his dad's restaurant. The bits are a fun, albeit brief, time, though we're confused by Master Shifu's anachronistic knowledge of laptops and HTML5.
LG's 'Man from the Future' is ... just watch it
Alright, so this commercial's got Liam Neeson returning to Super Bowl ads, a digital dystopia that rips off the best parts of Tron: Legacy, and the cheesiest Shyamalan-esque plot twist at the end - all to promote LG's 4K OLED television.
Did we mention this masterpiece was directed by Jake Scott? As in, son of Sir Ridley Scott, the director behind Alien, Blade Runner, The Martian and one of the most iconic Super Bowl ads of all time?
Though ridiculous, we can't help but love how seriously this ad takes itself. If this OLED screen doesn't wind up becoming the arbiter of humanity's future, consider us disappointed.
A Marvelous Coke ad
Coca-Cola brought out the big (green) guns with its Marvel-infused Super Bowl commercial, enlisting not one but two popular heroes from the MCU.
Ant-Man (voiced by Paul Rudd) steals Dr. Bruce Banner's last can of Coke. As you can imagine, the incredible rage this theft causes sends Banner into major Hulk-out mode.
The commercial is a true marvel (heh heh) of movie-quality special effects and wonderful banter which really ups the ante for soda commercials in a big way – Don Draper would be proud.
Speaking of Marvel...
Marvel had a big showing at this year's Super Bowl, with its Captain America: Civil War TV spot arguably stealing the thunder from every other movie with a spot during the big game.
While it isn't quite as flashy as some of the other movie TV spots shown, it works because we care about what happens to these characters – when you have heroes against heroes, any loss from either side is going to hurt.
You can read about the spot in more depth here, and you can watch it in all its glory below.
More Marvel, this time from Fox
20th Century Fox brought a new TV spot for X-Men: Apocalypse to the Super Bowl this year, and though it features plenty of visual effects and spectacular action shots, one particular scene in which Psylocke (Olivia Munn) flips while cutting straight through a car is the spot's showstopper.
Director Bryan Singer has said that the film will be his last hurrah in the X-Men universe, so we certainly hope he goes out with a bang.
Even more Marvel
Though the film is set to release this week, that didn't stop 20th Century Fox from dropping a final TV spot for Deadpool at the Super Bowl this year, and who can blame it? That's one big, big potential audience.
This TV spot has some unseen footage sprinkled throughout it which is sure to get you pumped to see the film this weekend – we're already warming our chimichangas in anticipation!
And now, a change of pace
Arriving out of nowhere with a release date that's right around the corner, producer J.J. Abrams' follow-up to the giant monster movie Cloverfield has us intrigued and wanting to know more.
Well, the TV spot shown at the Super Bowl doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know, choosing instead to keep us in the dark in true 'mystery box' fashion – watch the TV spot for 10 Cloverfield Lane below.
Bourne to be wild
Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass have returned for another entry in the Bourne franchise with the unimaginably titled Jason Bourne (seriously Hollywood?).
Lame name aside, the film looks like it's going to kick some serious ass, with much bigger action than we're used to seeing from this franchise.
Disney's other movie featuring black panther
The only full movie trailer shown at Super Bowl 50 was for Disney's The Jungle Book, and boy was it ever impressive.
Looking a bit like Life of Pi taken to the next level, the trailer for Jon Favreau's adaptation shows off the wonderful visual effects which bring the film's talking animal cast to life (Christopher Walken and Bill Murray being particular standouts).
We're so excited to see more of The Jungle Book, we can 'bearly' take it.
T-U-R-T-L-E power
Though Paramount's first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film was unsuccessful, it was very poorly received from fans of the Turtles franchise.
With that said, everything we've seen from its sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows seems to be nailing the spirit of the property (particularly its original cartoon series).
This TV spot gives us our first look at the highly-anticipated villain Krang in his robot suit. It looks pretty radical, if you ask us...
This... Is... Egypt!!
Though it's been criticised for its ethnically inappropriate cast of mostly white actors playing Egyptians, we expect Gods of Egypt to be a rousing, epic time at the movies.
Why, you ask? Because director Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City, I Robot) is responsible for some wonderfully visionary pieces of cinema, and we expect no less from him here.
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day... again!
Releasing 20 years after the original film blew audiences away, Independence Day: Resurgence hopes to capture the same success that saw last year's Jurassic World become one of the highest grossing films of all time.
Will it come close? Hard to say – Will Smith isn't around this time, but what it lacks in the Fresh Prince, it makes up for with the return of Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, and many other original cast members.
Oh, and it will also bring some new blood into the mix, with Liam Hemsworth, Maika Monroe and Jessie Usher taking on important roles.
