I thought the spectacle as a whole was great, but I wasn’t particularly impressed by Madonna’s own part in any of it. And I pretty much expect any Super Bowl halftime show to be lipsynched-- I’m surprised to hear that others weren’t.
Nothing says “lowest common denominator” like Super Bowl Halftime does. That’s usually my chance to take a break and do a little something until the game starts again. Anyone looking for great entertainment is nuts. It’s the nature of the beast that it’s going to be mediocre. I did see (or hear) enough of it to say it was better than when they had The Who. I actually tried to watch that because I really like The Who, but it was so painful I couldn’t take it.
I thought it was meh. She was obviously lip syncing, so you could assume that her voice was goosed up so it would sound better. Her dancing was pretty lame.
Man. I thought she killed it. I am so disappointed to hear others didn’t like her as much as I did.
Nah, it was good. Keep in mind this place is full of crotchety old misers who are predisposed to hate everything. 
(I think the “her voice just didn’t sound as good as it used to” comment I quoted in post #29 really sums it up)
I thought she was fabulous too, and I thought my FIL was going to have a heart attack - he spent the entire first half of the game farting around in his garage, but ran in like a kid on Christmas to see Madonna. 
I don’t care much one way or another about Madonna, but I thought it was a hot mess. Her new song already sounds like something Selena Gomez rejected as too juvenile, add a 53 year old woman shaking pom poms (and I don’t care how good she looks, she’s still 53) and it’s just kinda sad.
I thought she was pretty great, and I am not a big fan really.
I’m a huge fan of The Who as well, and I couldn’t agree more. I actually enjoyed Madonna’s show even though I’m not a fan of hers.
John Fogerty is in the right age bracket now, and I think he could put on a decent 15-minute show. (he could probably write some different lyrics to Centerfield for the occassion)
Pro Tools is ageless.
The Who, The Boss and Tom Petty all sang live. The lip-sync was all too obvious.
Still, it was visually impressive.
I’m not sure of the exact equipment used, but I think I can give you a general idea of what was done. The stage had a whole bunch of LED display panels under a high-impact plexiglass. In front of the stage, they probably just rolled out a projection surface. Above the stage, they probably had several high-brightness projectors (think 35,000 lumens or so) that were edge-blended and had some mapping done to eliminate their projecting onto the stage. It was all probably fed from a video server with many HD outputs that processed the image to split it all up so that each piece was sent to the correct display. I’m guessing that the resolution of the content was well above HD (1920 x 1080).
I don’t know if it was the beer, Tom Brady’s safety :D, or subterranean expectations when it comes to half time shows but I enjoyed Madonna - it was a fun show.
I was about to change the channel, but my wife and daughter stopped me. They wanted to watch her and the commercials. I’ve always thought her too much show and not enough music since her debut, and this did nothing to change my mind. According to the morning host on Fox5NY, she has a hamstring injury that was limiting her, but the host is a fan who will use any excuse to forgive Madonna. I thought the sound was atrocious…I figured the TV feed would have been cleaner, but I was wrong.
My daughter squealed in delight because one of the dancers was from SYTYCD and it was one of the ones she liked.
ABC News had a interview with the slack line guy. He said Madonna had worked with him and the shows performers for a couple months. She was very hands on, approving costumes and other details. Also they mentioned Madonna had a pulled hamstring. That explains her stiff and slow performance. I’m sure age must have been a factor too.
Sorry. Saw the trees, but not the forest. Yeah, it doesn’t look too fancy.
I’m not a Madonna fan, but the girl sitting next to me at the party I was at is a huge fan, was worried about Madge being worried about not having enough rehearsal time with the actual stage, and was puzzled as to why she was moving so slowly…and her first thoughts weren’t “old age”. She thought the heels were just too tall for her to move safely on that surface, and she was actually scared when she stumbled.
Fortunately we were a mixed age group watching, because it took three generations to identify all the guest stars. We all thought it was funny that the “wardrobe malfunction” was a part of her costume resisting being ripped off, and also thought it was funny that this was one half-time show where people actually put ON more concealing clothing as the act progressed. And we all yelled “please, no, don’t let her sing!” when Nicky Minage (sp) appeared. Madonna and CeeLo didn’t seem to mesh at all, but we were all fascinated by the special effects on the stage surface and want to know how it works.
Agreed.
I never thought she was the best singer in the world, but damn she knows how to put on a show. She’s an entertainer.
The boots were more music video than live show. I’m sure that hampered her dancing, as would the headpiece. And a pulled hamstring?
53 is far from the grave, and unfortunately most people don’t put as much effort into taking care of themselves as she does. She looks great. Her body is so toned it puts 99% of the country to shame.
I don’t agree with the OP.
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She lipsang like it was on sale. I understand that dancer-singers need vocal help and wouldn’t begrudge her singing with a pre-recorded vocal track, but the mic could’ve been off for most of the show.
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Although visually nice as a show, her moves looked like she was almost saying them in their head (walk, walk, move, head to the left, half spin, up two stairs…), she wasn’t comfortable.
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Startin with a droning song like Vogue is not the way to get the groove going.
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Was the band playing live or just faking it?
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Bringins other big-names to a haltime show means you’re not that hot.
A common thread seems to be that those who liked the show don’t care that it was lip synched, and those that didn’t do (I’m in the category of caring that it was lip synched).
But if everyone knows that it’s lip synched, and the people who hate that are predisposed to dislike the show as a result anyway, then why bother? Why not just have a track playing, and a spectacle performance and lose the facade that singing is occurring?