We’re less than one week away from the Super Bowl LX face-off between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. With that comes a new wave of the year’s biggest, most outlandish advertisements. I’m no sports fan, but I do take pleasure in checking out all of the ridiculously over-the-top commercials that companies blow their year’s marketing budget on. This year’s bunch is starting to roll out, and one is definitely catching our eye. Xfinity’s Jurassic Park-inspired Super Bowl spot is a nostalgia-play-gone-sideways that features de-aged versions of stars Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum. You just have to watch to understand.
Jurassic Park... Works | Xfinity Super Bowl LX Commercial
In the nicest way possible, it’s giving a little Uncanny Valley. The commercial imagines what it would be like if the events of Jurassic Park went right. That is, if Xfinity internet was around to power the sabotaged security network and keep the dinosaurs locked away safely in their pens. The answer is (drumroll) Pina Coladas by the pool and dino selfies, obviously. The commercial cuts footage from the original film with new de-aged footage of Ellie Sattler, Alan Grant, and Ian Malcolm. Unfortunately, the splicing looks a little… odd.
Of the three, Laura Dern honestly doesn’t look that bad. I suppose it is difficult to de-age an actor running through a swarm of Gallimimus. It starts to get a bit dicey with Goldblum. All is well when he’s just lounging around, but as soon as he gets up to walk toward a giant pile of shrimp…oh, boy. It’s a tad unnatural. Still, nothing is worse than the jump to Sam Neill. It’s jarring. His words line up poorly with his mouth, his face looks and moves unnaturally, and then there’s the random Triceratops carousel bit. Worse, Neill is on Instagram live at one point, sooo, was there really even a need to de-age in the first place? Accompanying the commercial, Xfinity dropped a behind-the-scenes short.
The behind-the-scenes clip shows that Taika Waititi directed the commercial. Obviously, it was meant to be a fun, nostalgic story of what could have been. And yes, even I concede that the concept is cute. The execution, unfortunately, misses the mark. Man-eating dinosaurs? Pftt. The real horror is bad CGI. With that being said, who knows what other wacky, pricey Super Bowl ads we have to look forward to this year.