The non-sporting action from Super Bowl 2018, including snap reviews of the best (and worst) commercials, film trailers and the half-time show
- Timberlake’s performance was a forgettable but flashy medley of hits
- The biggest movie and TV trailers
That’s it from us. Justin Timberlake’s half-time performance wasn’t up there with the greats. The audio was terrible, his camo suit was even worse. One saving grace was that the Prince hologram wasn’t as bad as we all feared.
Justin Timberlake wore a camo suit to the Super Bowl, and it was truly somethinghttps://t.co/wJzreZrsM2 pic.twitter.com/gDG3LtG8Z3
You can check out our review of JT’s Super Bowl performance right here:
Related: Justin Timberlake's Super Bowl performance: a forgettable but flashy medley of hits
Tweet of the night?
Both teams playing to win, taking big risks and thinking big.
Hard to not see @realDonaldTrump's MAGA influence this #SuperBowl
In case you missed the news, Netflix will launch the third Cloverfield movie once the game is over. NBC must be pretty mad given that they’re hoping audiences will be sticking around for what they’ve called an “historic” episode of This is Us. A review will be coming later tonight
Related: Netflix launching surprise Cloverfield movie after Super Bowl
Everyone likes to see a horrible rich man get hit by a football. And Groupon - and comedian Tiffany Haddish - serve that up in this ad emphasizing that we should support local business.
Martin Luther King’s family have issued a statement about that RAM ad we covered earlier. (The one that uses one of King’s speeches to sell a truck.)
Neither @TheKingCenter nor @BerniceKing is the entity that approves the use of #MLK’s words or imagery for use in merchandise, entertainment (movies, music, artwork, etc) or advertisement, including tonight’s @Dodge #SuperBowl& commercial.
Eli and Odell with the performance of the night? #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/FHQShTaPy3
The strangest ads tonight have come from, ahem, Scientology who have spent their millions to try and attract football fans to join their cult, sorry, religion.
The reaction on Twitter has been colorful:
Fuck Scientology. Everyone avert your eyes!
Scientology is a cult that abuses people (and worse), just so you know. Their Super Bowl ad is just propaganda.
“Just saw the Scientology commercial. Looks way cooler than those silly documentaries say. Bye non-believer losers, I’m signing up!”
- literally no one
Well she might have hated the Grammys for all those political statements but, good news everyone, Nikki Haley enjoyed JT’s performance:
To say @jtimberlake is talented is an understatement. Halftime show was awesome! #Superbowl
The full video of JT’s half-time show is now up in case you missed it or you want to rewatch on a loop until Cloverfield 3 drops:
Jurassic Park
It might surprise you to learn that going to the Superbowl is incredibly expensive. Tickets aside, once at the stadium a bottle of water costs $6 and a slice of pizza with a soda is $21. ESPN sent their writers into the bowels of the US Bank Stadium to check out the prices. Here are their findings results.
Personal favorite: the Justin Timberlake inspired J-Tea cocktail. $35.
In honor of Justin Timberlake's halftime performance at #SuperBowlLII, the 300 level concourse is selling the "J-Tea": whiskey, black tea and simple syrup in a plastic mock mason jar. @CourtneyRCronin pic.twitter.com/iiASxhkVa9
Timberlake will be hoping that his performance can boost sales of his new album Man in the Woods (last year Lady Gaga saw a 1000% rise in sales of Joanne after she appeared) and given some of the reviews, he could do with all of the help he can get.
Here’s a two star take:
Related: Justin Timberlake: Man of the Woods review – failed fusion of rural rhythms
You can check out the Prince tribute here and decide for yourself whether you think it was a good or a bad idea:
.@JTimberlake pays tribute to Prince during his #SuperBowl halftime show performance https://t.co/AnoevlnJIt #SB52 pic.twitter.com/goZZlcoJSp
There is a certain appeal to this idea:
Love JT, but RT if you think @GordonRamsay shouting about undercooked food should be the halftime show next year. pic.twitter.com/xPaUvKQNbb
Budweiser, water
For everyone criticizing Timberlake for the Prince tribute, there’s someone else praising him. Here’s a sample:
I know some people didn't like it but you can't be in Minneapolis and not do something pertaining to Prince pic.twitter.com/y2XvQ7KqnS
My mom, a long time Prince fan, who literally went to see Prince a million times, just called me and said JT was awesome and he did Prince very well :)
Everyone complaining about JT projecting Prince would've complained if he performed in Minnesota without acknowledging Prince, and that is really the essence of Twitter
You can see, kind of, what the Prince cameo/tribute looked like. There are some angry tweets surfacing but we’ve seen similar before and I don’t think this one was anything worse:
Justin Timberlake giving tribute to Prince during his #SuperBowlLll half-time show. pic.twitter.com/NjbuGAgF8G
You can see a taster here of Justin’s dance moves. I’m exhausted:
.@JTimberlake kicks off the #SB52 halftime show https://t.co/AnoevlnJIt pic.twitter.com/4KG2uqJLSo
That’s it! Seemed rather quick but one can fault Timberlake’s energy. It’s also interesting just how little he focused on his new material, wisely realising that given his album came out this week, familiarity will be at a minimum. Also, no surprise guests and sadly no NSYNC songs.
A full review will be up very soon.
He’s moved onto Mirrors with a crowd around him all holding mirrors which does make a nice flashy effect but yeah, bit worried about what would happen if one smashes.
He’s playing the piano now while singing Until the End of Time and oh no, Prince is here.
Even though we thought he wasn’t going to bring on a hologram of Prince he’s decided to use an image of the star projected onto a giant piece of material from the sky. It’s a duet of I Would Die For You and there are purple lights everywhere.
Cry Me a River came up next, well a frustratingly short snippet of it, before he decided to give us an early 00s-style break it down moment dancing along to an array of noices.
Okay so the woodsy theme is somewhat represented in his really quite awful outfit which seems to have a photo print of a woodland scene all over it.
He’s jumping along to My Love now, wisely sticking to the hits he’s known for and keeping newer material to a minimum.
His second song is a wise nod to the past. It’s Rock Your Body from Justified, inargaubly his greatest album. He’s trying to engineer a party vibe, surrounded by excited dancers in the middle of the stadium.
It’s a swift medley of hits as he’s gone from Senorita to SexyBack within seconds, showing of his dance moves while belting out the older hits.
Danny DeVito isn’t just being an M&M tonight. He’s actually at the SuperBowl – with It’s Always Sunny’s Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson.
Can we just skip the next two hours and call it a night? pic.twitter.com/8qBwIcjBUC
The half-time show has kicked off with Jimmy Fallon introducing JT while holding a Pepsi. The first song is Filthy and has Timberlake dancing around some Entrapment-style lasers and a small crowd of fans holding their smartphones, which is annoying.
The audio is a bit poor though and it’s hard to hear much of his voice. He’s making his way out of a small club setting, grinding indiscriminately with various women. More to come!
Film Twitter is having fun with the Cloverfield news. This might be the peak tweet:
Is this the first time a Super Bowl has gone into CLOVER time?
Timberlake is teasing his arrival. That outfit does not look woodsy enough to me though
⚠️ Two minute warning. ⚠️ @Jumpman23 #SBLII pic.twitter.com/yBo3PZFAJJ
NBC had a blackout earlier... a full 20 seconds (depending on the region) of no coverage. It caused Widespread Panic. The Great Darkness of 2018 happened during the commercial break, so some poor company is going to be really upset. According to Variety “Losing seconds of commercials could jeopardize millions in ad dollars for the network.” Nice work by Deadpool though.
My tv screen just went dark.
So far this is the best commercial of the Superbowl.
Sorry guys. Sat on the remote. #DPtheSB #SB52
Will JT’s half-time show match up to some of the all-time Super Bowl greats? Here’s a look back at the 10 greatest:
Related: The 10 greatest Super Bowl half-time shows -& Ranked!
While no special guests have been confirmed to join Timberlake at half-time, one performer who will definitely not be appearing is Janet Jackson:
JT is taking it easy today ... NOT.
Good one JT
Lazy Sunday.#SBLII pic.twitter.com/c0u9eXIvQA
Oh dear. RAM trucks has just run a commercial using a Martin Luther King Jr speech to try to coax people to buy their trucks. This commercial wasn’t made available before tonight. If it had been, maybe they’d have pulled it. The ad is not getting a good reception. How do companies get this so wrong?
Ah yes, when I think of MLK I think of pickup trucks
Martin Luther King Jr. apparently wants you to buy Dodge trucks
“The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism” — Real MLK Jr, 3/3/1967
Buy Dodge trucks — Fake MLK Jr, 2/4/2018
Donald Trump, according to his recent doctors report, is 6ft 3in and 239lbs. That’s exactly one pound under obese. A lot of people doubt he is actually that weight.
Tom Brady is 6'4" and 225 lbs. It's good to know what I'll look like when I lose that last 10 lbs! #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/mtZHgZZsTc
Some Vikings driving a truck
@adamgabbatt because the Minnesota Vikings lost the NFC championship pic.twitter.com/lDy5NYGVHK
Donald Trump, who is the president, has used Superbowl Sunday to reignite his controversial views and statements about standing for the anthem.
We owe these heroes the greatest respect for defending our liberty and our American way of life. Their sacrifice is stitched into each star and every stripe of our Star-Spangled Banner. We hold them in our hearts and thank them for our freedom as we proudly stand for the national anthem.
Activists formed a human chain outside the US Bank stadium this afternoon to protest police brutality and racial inequality. More than 500 people had said they planned to attend the “Superbowl Anti-Racist Anti-Corporate Rally”.
Black Lives Matter protesters block transit lines in Minneapolis before Super Bowl https://t.co/34q9Vcy7VI pic.twitter.com/4kLGB2VFpN
The multiracial activists were shown chanting, singing, dancing and voicing their grievances through a bullhorn about economic and social justice challenges faced by people of color, including decrying the millions of dollars spent on the stadium and the effort to bring the Super Bowl to Minneapolis.
Despite having a flu-filled week, Pink managed to impress with her rendition of the national anthem. There was also a noticeable lack of kneeling.
Tonight’s national anthem will be belted out by Pink whose history of live performances certainly proves that she’s got the talent to pull it off. But the singer has been battling the flu this week which could add some interesting extra noises.
She’s probably still this excited though:
Ummm. I’m singing the national anthem and the EAGLES ARE PLAYING?!?!?! IS THIS FOR REAL?!?!?!THATS WHASSUP!!!!!!!! Shtjtkd widnamc ckamcnsnzncbx!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooohooooooooooooioooooooooooooooooooooooooiiiiiiooooooooooo
Ex-Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr is singing America, the Beautiful before the big game and doing a mighty fine job of it. He’s accompanied by a choir of kids and it’s interspersed with shots of understandably nervous players. But enough about them ...
This could be pretty major. So it’s just a rumour at the moment but Netflix might be launching the third Cloverfield movie directly after the game tonight, according to an article on Deadline.
It’s been reported that Paramount sold them the film, originally titled God Particle and now maybe called Cloverfield Station, and that Netflix would release a trailer during one of the many ad breaks but now it’s heading for a surprise launch.
Well this is intriguing ...
#FilmTwitter is going to explode tonight. Something is coming that I can hardly believe. Lawd. History in the making.
This time last year Lady Gaga put on an impressive show despite disappointing some with her lack of political speech. But there was jumping and singing and dancing and all that. You can take a look back here:
Celebrities are already there in force, including Diddy who has dressed for the occasion. Just not this actual occasion
Now for some good news. It had been reported that Justin Timberlake was going to bring on a hologram of Prince as part of his half-time show but after a considerable backlash on social media, it’s now been pulled. Given that Prince once referred to the idea as “demonic”, it’s a relief to say the least.
Sheila E, a close friend of the late singer, tweeted this:
Family, I spoke w/Justin 2nite and he shared heartfelt words of respect for Prince & the Purple fans. I look 4wrd 2 seeing what I’m sure is going 2 be a spectacular halftime show. There is no hologram. pic.twitter.com/mhVXBfBa1B
Last night, there was a rather funny skit on Saturday Night Live that parodied the rivalry between tonight’s dueling sets of fans. Tina Fey steals the show despite the fact that she is no longer on the actual show:
Welcome to the liveblog that will be featuring all the non-football news from tonight’s Super Bowl. Despite the fact that there’s some sort of big game going on, there will be plenty of other guff to keep an eye on.
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