What in the pits of Muspelheim’s lava pools is this? Sony has spent big on God of War Ragnarok’s latest commercial, which sees Ben Stiller dressed as Kratos for a group therapy session with John Travolta and LeBron James. We think the commercial’s trying to play into the complicated relationship between the aforementioned Spartan and his son Atreus, but it didn’t work for us.

The so-called “Super Bowl-level spot” was cooked up by PlayStation’s global marketing team, and represents one of the ways the company hopes to reach new audiences. “To launch the latest instalment we wanted to take an innovative approach that combined both traditional and non-traditional routes,” bigwig Eric Lempel said. “I challenged our team to come up with new strategies to take this title to the market.”

The ad features Stiller and his son Quin, Travolta and his daughter Ella, and James and his son Bronny – none of whom appear to understand why they’re there. Perhaps that’s the joke? “I can relate to Kratos in a lot of ways, especially in this father-son narrative,” the LA Lakers star said. “You try to be confident and strong and make it seem like you have it all figured out, but in reality, you're just doing your best and learning as you go. With Bronny being my oldest, he's taught me so much about fatherhood and about myself. It was great to have a little fun with that dynamic here.”

Yeah, we’re not sure about this one.

[source youtube.com, via ew.com]