The Best Super Bowl Trailers of 2018: Fiery Fallouts, Souring Skyscrapers, and Scoundrels Rising

Every year, around the first week of February, the world gathers together to watch packs of large men in opposing colors duke it out across the football field. Every year, someone loses money over which team they chose to win big, and their respective cities either bloom with cheer or scurry into the shadows until next season. This is of course, the Super Bowl. While every year or so for the past few years, I've gathered with friends or family to witness the massive sporting event unfold, from its many fumbles and touchdowns to its commercials and halftime extravaganza, one of the most exciting things I've found in watching the Super Bowl has to be the trailers -- yes, the trailers. While this year might have lacked plenty in memorable commercials (besides Amazon's Alexa losing her voice), it made up for in its numerous teases at the major films and television coming this spring and summer. While I still enjoyed the game at hand, or at least what I could follow, here's my breakdown of the best Super Bowl trailers to hit the small screen this year:

Mission: Impossible - Fallout - A franchise that always manages to up the ante when it comes to its impressive stunt work, easily surpassing that of Fast & Furious, the sixth film in the Mission: Impossible series arrives in the form of Mission: Impossible - Fallout. With its first trailer teasing a fiery end game for Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt and his team of skilled agents, Fallout easily stole the night for me as far as trailers go. With its fast-paced action spinning alongside Imagine Dragons' "Friction", our first peek at the IMF's deadliest mission delivered not only an effective level of hype, but also a slice of Justice League's Henry Cavill, adorned in his infamous mustache. 

The Cloverfield Paradox - While an appearance of Tom Cruise dangling from a helicopter seemed predictable, the one teaser trailer that completely blindsided me was that of the cryptic Cloverfield follow-up, The Cloverfield Paradox. In a marketing move so covert it seemed almost like an early April Fool's joke, the J.J. Abrams-produced film dropped on Netflix mere minutes after the Super Bowl. With its teaser hinting at a clear connection with that of 2008's found-footage alien flick Cloverfield, the surprise prequel looks to explore how the events of the first film came to be, in an Alien-esque premise in the dark reaches of space. How the film connects to that of 2016's 10 Cloverfield Lane is yet to be determined.

Solo: A Star Wars Story - While I'm still eager to see The Last Jedi a second time, especially after the film garnered plenty of criticism for its bold narrative shifts, another polarizing film on the docket is the Han Solo origin film in Solo: A Star Wars Story. While casting news and leaked concept art, as well as the loss of its primary directing duo, might have painted the Star Wars spin-off in a negative light to the majority, I remained quite eager to witness just a sliver of footage from the film. The Super Bowl didn't disappoint, as it gave us our first true look inside Ron Howard's ambitious scoundrel story. While the full trailer for the film wasn't released that night, the bit of footage did give fans a viable reason to be excited for the spin-off. While we might not know much about the film's premise yet, at least we know Lando Calrissian (played by Donald Glover) still looks good in capes.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - Just as 2015's Jurassic World sought to retain the nostalgic factor in its continuation of Steven Spielberg's iconic 1993 film, its highly-anticipated follow-up in June's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom seeks to not only return to the horror roots of the prehistoric series, but also toss Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Ian Malcolm back into the mix. Setting up that horror tone right off the bat in its Super Bowl tease, we find Chris Pratt's Owen Grady battling corporate thugs and volcanos in what could be a much more memorable addition to the Jurassic Park franchise.

Avengers: Infinity War - As we inch closer and closer to the fourth of May with every waking hour, the anticipation to see the culmination of ten years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe still seems like a dream. With 2008's Iron Man giving rise to nearly eighteen feature films so far (and various television properties along the way), Avengers: Infinity War seeks to unite the heroes of the past decade in an all-out battle for survival. While we already got a pretty satisfying taste of the film in its first trailer back in November, the Super Bowl stinger provided even more hype for the superhero showdown. Showcasing both the turmoil to unfold at the hands of Thanos, as well as the team-ups set to come about between various characters from the franchise's expensive line-up, May can't get here any quicker.   

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan - While author Tom Clancy's famed super spy might have a number of faces, at least within the cinematic world, as actors like Ben Affleck, Chris Pine, and Alec Baldwin have portrayed the character in a handful of films, The Office's John Krasinski seeks to leave behind his days behind a desk and leap into the action. He plans to do so in Amazon's newest original series Jack Ryan. With the Super Bowl trailer extending the brief footage from before to explore not only who Ryan is, but what global crisis he's found himself in, Krasinski's bold new starring role looks like it could make for a very promising spy series.

  

A Quiet Place - Another ambitious project that finds John Krasinski traversing new ground is the April supernatural horror film A Quiet Place. With its Big Game teaser filling us in on just why Krasinski and his on-screen family, including his real-life wife Emily Blunt, have taken a vow of silence while living on a secluded farm, the thriller seeks to retain much of the secrecy concerning its bone-chilling premise, while showcasing an intense directorial debut from none other than Krasinski himself.  

Westworld: Season 2 - Another television tease during the Big Game found itself in a dynamically chilling trailer for the sophomore season of HBO's Westworld. Unexpected but greatly appreciated, our latest peek at the engrossing science fiction series tossed fans back into the world of deadly cyborgs and immersive theme parks as we follow the fiery consequences of the show's phenomenal first season.  

Skyscraper - The latest in a string of massive action set-pieces starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, the July action-thriller from the director of DodgeBall and Central Intelligence brought a compelling teaser to the Big Game, as we found Johnson walking -- or rather running -- in the shoes of other action stars like Bruce Willis and Liam Neeson. While its premise might seem a bit familiar in the somewhat over-seasoned action genre, following a former FBI agent (Johnson) embarking on a daring mission to rescue his family from danger, the film still could be an effective platform for The Rock to show off his more dramatic side -- perhaps a bit more dialed down from his persona in the Fast & Furious films.  

With that, what was your favorite commercial or trailer from Super Bowl LII? Let me know in the comments below, and stay tuned this week as I go in-depth with the first trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story!