Justin Timberlake Paints the Town Purple In Energetic Super Bowl Halftime Show

Justin Timberlake was the performer for Super Bowl LII’s halftime show and the pop star gave an energetic, but ultimately underwhelming performance.

The former boy band singer kicked off the show with his latest single, “Filthy,” but microphone problems made it impossible to hear him. Meanwhile, there were so many lasers covering him up we couldn’t see him either. So, what exactly were we supposed to be doing during the first few minutes? (Snack break, of course.)

The rest of the performance served as reminders of moments you hoped might happen, but that ultimately never materialized.

When the singer broke out into “Rock Your Body,” it appeared that he brought his old bandmates from N’Sync out to dance with him. Huzzah! But alas, it was just four white look-a-likes with similar dance moves.

By the end of the track, Justin paused just before the finale line — “Gonna have you naked by the end of this song” — which was the exact moment that #nipplegate occurred when he performed with Janet Jackson in 2004. This time, unfortunately, there were no signs of Janet, let alone her bare breast, so we were once again left wanting more.

When he performed “Cry Me A River,” a track that he allegedly wrote about Britney Spears cheating on him, we remembered what an amazing surprise it would have been to have his pop-goddess ex surprise the crowd by joining him onstage. But once again, we can’t always get what we want.

After that, there was a dance break on the field, and this is where Timberlake truly shined. His moves were reminiscent of his boy band days (in the best possible way) and reminded us of why we always thought he had so much talent in the first place.

Rumors began swirling earlier this week that Justin planned to trot out a Prince hologram during the show, a spoiler that upset many fans who thought he should let the deceased singer rest in peace.

It wasn’t exactly a hologram, as it turned out, but rather a video of Prince projected onto a bedsheet.

The two sang together before the video cut to the outside of the stadium in Minneapolis (Prince’s hometown, by the way) as everything in the city slowly turned purple. Eventually, the purple lights created Prince’s famous “Love Symbol.”

It was definitely a wonderful tribute but brought us back to our original problem. With Prince having arguably had one of the greatest halftime performances in history, this became a reminder that Timberlake’s show just couldn’t compare.

The show ended with a performance of “Can’t Stop The Feeling,” complete with dancers and a giant band. A kid took a selfie with Justin and then stood there awkwardly instead of dancing along, which was an enjoyable highlight that will surely be a meme for weeks to come.

But overall, it felt like the party was probably better if you were there live. And for the rest of us, it served as a reminder of what could have been.