The Super Bowl is a high-octane event that revs up all Americans watching, so it makes sense that Need For Speed would air its movie trailer during one of the game's commercial breaks. This action flick stars Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul in his first post-Breaking Bad role and rapper Kid Cudi, who I was unaware acted until now. (And, what do you know? He actually looks pretty good in the film!) From the first trailer that's been released, it was difficult to tell what exactly the movie was about — was there any other focus besides fast cars and special effects? The Jesse Pinkman fan in me was a little disappointed in Paul's first post-AMC role, but the Aaron Paul fan in me knows that he's a great actor and could maybe make this movie tolerable. (For the record, Paul spoke about his choice to take on the film saying, "Need for Speed was a blast! I needed a break from getting beat up and tortured on Breaking Bad. It was nice to get away from that and just do something that's just fun, and also has a great story in it. I think the film will surprise a lot of people.")
But one thing that's undeniable is how unfortunate the timing of a high-octane car chase movie is so soon after Fast and Furious' Paul Walker's death. Many expressed their concern on Twitter about the similarity of the two films and discussed whether it was appropriate.
Could this have an impact on how the film is received? For Paul's sake, here's hoping people go easy on the Need for Speed. But, based on the film's Super Bowl trailer, should they? It seemed to confirm initial speculation that this is a movie mostly about fast cars and special effects. The spot showed footage of speeding cars over sounds of speeding engines while the words "What drives you?" flashed by on the screen. Then Paul asks a cliché, "Got anything faster?" at the end of the 30-second commercial as if the multiple speeding vehicles shown the the trailer were somehow not enough for their crazy antics.
Will the end result be as underwhelming? Watch the full commercial below and judge for yourselves:
Click here to check out more of Super Bowl XLVIII's best and worst ads.
Image: DreamWorks
