Top 5 Sci-fi Super Bowl 2011 Ads

Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast was a veritable geek marathon with a slew of commercials for upcoming sci-fi movies and TV shows. I think it’s a great sign that entertainment normally dismissed as just for nerds is now being targeted to the mainstream public. And you don’t get more mainstream than the Super Bowl. For those geeks who were too busy watching Dr. Who on DVD to catch the Super Bowl, you can still get in on the excitement. Check out the top five geek Super Bowl commercials below.

1. Captain America: The First Avenger – For me, the biggest commercial was our first look at Captain America. I must say, it was pretty impressive. The transformation from weakling Steve Rogers to Captain America is incredible, and all my fears over the costume evaporated when I saw it in action. And was that the Red Skull? I think it was.

2. Cowboys and Aliens – The title says it all. Cowboys and aliens…two great tastes that taste great together. The commercial looked pretty awesome, and our first glimpses of the alien spaceships and cowboys shooting them rocked. And I can’t help getting giddy over seeing Harrison Ford in another sci-fi movie.

3. Terra Nova – I actually had not heard of FOX’s Terra Nova before I saw the commercial, so this was a pleasant surprise. The show about a family going back in time to populate prehistoric Earth looks pretty good. Weekly dinosaur attacks are always a good thing.

4. Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Then there’s the inevitable Transformers 3 teaser. No Megan Fox. Giant robots getting blown up. But “Dark of the Moon?” He couldn’t just call it “Dark Side of the Moon?” Bay always has to make things difficult.

5. Adjustment Bureau – Another sci-fi property I hadn’t known about until I saw this commercial. Matt Damon plays an ordinary man who uncovers a mysterious organization that controls our fate. It’s based on a story by Phillip K. Dick. Here’s hoping it’s more Blade Runner than Paycheck.

Runners Up: Super 8 (Nice visuals, not enough about the actual story), Battle: Los Angeles (Could’ve transplanted all that footage into Independence Day), Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (subtitled: A Desperate Attempt to Squeeze More Money Out of the Already Strained Property)

[Thanks, YouTube]