1. "Star Trek Into Darkness"
J.J. Abrams knows how to tease. There is just enough new imagery in this 30-second spot — especially of a smoldering U.S.S. Enterprise careening into Earth's atmosphere — to whet our appetites all over again for his Star Trek sequel. (Nerd alert: Does this mean Into Darkness will unveil the NCC-1701-A?)
The best moment, however, is reserved for this ominous exchange between Benedict Cumberbatch's enigmatic bad guy and Chris Pine's Kirk:
Benny Batch: I am...bet-tah.
Kirk: At what?
Benny Batch: Everything.
Does it feature an Inception foghorn? Yes.
2. "Iron Man 3" extended look*
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That asterisk signifies that this ad would be number one if it actually ran during the Super Bowl. Instead, a 30-second glimpse of a gripping sequence involving Tony Stark rescuing people sucked out of a hole in Air Force One played during the big game (you can see it below) and then pointed viewers to an "extended look" of the film on Facebook. And if you went to Facebook, you were greeted with Robert Downey Jr. staring down the camera for 25 seconds: "That might've been more 'extensive' than 'extended.'" This is why you hire this man to star in your movie.
Inception foghorn? No.
The 30-second "Iron Man 3" ad that ran on TV:
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3. "Fast & Furious 6"
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Just when you begin to moan out loud, "Another Fast & Furious movie?" they bring out the tank. And then they bring down a cargo plane — with an Alfa Romeo. And then, for kicks, Michelle Rodriguez shows up, even though her character died in 2009's Fast & Furious, a fact most of America probably doesn't even remember.
Inception foghorn? No.
4. "The Lone Ranger"
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At 90 seconds, it's by far the longest movie trailer that played during the Super Bowl (technically, during the pregame show), and yet very little of it feels exactly fresh. There's a lot of ominous setup of Armie Hammer's title masked vigilante, but very little indication about what sets him upon his journey. Still, there are two cool train-related gags, and only one of them involves Johnny Depp's curiously under-showcased Tonto.
Inception foghorn? No.
5. "World War Z"
It's a familiar, if effective, disaster movie setup — happy family stuck in mundane Manhattan traffic suddenly find themselves plunged into apocalyptic chaos — not to mention the fact that we covered this ground already in the film's first full trailer. Also, all the confusion among the characters about what is causing all this anarchy leads me to this question: How come people have never heard of zombies in zombie movies?
Inception foghorn? Oh boy, yes.
6. "Oz: The Great and Powerful"
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Rather than showcase much new footage, this spot chose to reconfigure the film as a rock-'em-sock-'em cavalcade of eye candy that tells a story from the world of The Wizard of Oz you've! Never! Seen! Before! Lost in the bombast: any real sense of what that story is.
Inception foghorn? No.