Super Bowl Trailers: Space Edition

You know how I know Hollywood is f-cked? Of all the red flags and warning flares, I don’t think there is a bigger one than every movie trailer that debuted during the Super Bowl falling flat. Usually at least ONE breaks through the noise to trend online and spark a conversation, but not this year.

As Hollywood’s (largely self-inflicted) slump continues, Marvel sat out the festivities entirely—they’re usually good for a game spot but decided not to test our patience after the Doomsday four-teaser roll out over the holidays—and DC only released a spot during the Puppy Bowl. They did that for Superman last year, too, so it’s in their playbook, but it does mean the new Supergirl spot, featuring Krypto as a puppy, didn’t get maximum exposure. It looks super cute, though!

Lol at Krypto being a rescue found eating garbage on the street. That is very cat-coded of him. I really like the look of Supergirl, I think this movie will do well, I just hope we don’t have to have dumb misogynistic discourse about it. We probably will but let me cling to this hope for a little longer.

In other space-themed trailer news, The Mandalorian and Grogu didn’t put up a new trailer, instead, they did a riff on a Budweiser ad, with Mando and Grogu driving a space wagon through a space western setting.

It’s not a bad idea, in and of itself, and if Star Wars was in a healthier spot with audiences, I think this would work better; but Lucasfilm is in recovery mode, they’ve got to convince people not to wait for this movie to hit Disney+, and frankly, I do not think this little ad is doing nearly enough on that front. Every second of marketing for this movie needs to be about convincing people to leave their house, and this is not achieving that goal.

It has been long enough, in general, since there was a Star Wars movie in theaters—seven years—that that alone might motivate some people to go see “the new one”, but…I don’t trust audiences anymore. I don’t trust them to show up for sh-t. Not saying there won’t be hit movies, there will be, but now more than ever, I don’t think we can predict what people will respond to. I do not think Lucasfilm is taking this seriously enough.

Finally, Project Hail Mary dropped their final trailer six weeks out from the film’s release.

This trailer lays out the plot—maybe too much?—that Ryan Gosling, as Dr. Grace, has to save the world alongside a boulder-like alien he dubs “Rocky”. They have to learn to communicate, so it’s a little bit “Boy Arrival”. But then drawing little safety goggles on Rocky’s safety bubble? It’s so cute I could puke.

The friendship vibes are strong and given the overall bleakness of the world right now, I support it. I hope this movie is good, I hope people see it, I hope for a few hours, it helps transport us to a better place. I say “a few hours” because the runtime is reportedly two hours and 46 minutes. Also, Rocky IS a puppet, in case you are wondering, puppeteered and voiced by James Ortiz, an actor and playwright and puppet designer who has constructed puppets for Broadway productions of Into The Woods and The Skin of Our Teeth, for which he won a Drama Desk award.

I love that Lord & Miller went the puppet route, rather than relying on CGI, and that they got a proper puppeteer who is also an actor to provide both the puppet work and the voice acting. I do think that will make a difference in the overall feel and tone of the film. It also feels like a deliberate choice to prioritize human labor and participation in a time when a lot of Hollywood celebrities are shilling AI during the Super Bowl—stepping in your own trap, much? WHY are actors shilling AI? Bad enough when rich people shilled crypto, but I think actors shilling AI should have to answer questions about it at every press junket from here to eternity. Collaborators! We are noting you!