Final Wall-E Poster

Oh look! Isn’t that adorable? Don’t you just want to hug it and kiss it and love it forever?

That was a Tiny Toon reference by the way. Don’t worry, I wasn’t expecting anybody to get it.

Anyway, I actually think this poster is too adorable and cute, to be honest. Look at all the round surfaces! At all the shiny blue colors! At Wall-E waving! Now contrast this to the previous poster which was basically just our very much not round pal all by himself looking a little sad, or at least wistful. That was a great poster. This new poster, I don’t know, it’s like they made it for kids or something. It will definitely not play well with the more serious art-house crowd.

On a somewhat more serious note, I’m starting to see how they might actually get a broad audience to go see this. The sheer appeal of “It’s Pixar” was always going to be enough to get a decent number of butts on the seats, but the previous materials just seemed too gloomy to really make this the type of smash hit we are used to get from Pixar. But here we start to see what the world looks like beyond Wall-E’s initial little lonely corner, and this brings a lot more warmth than we had seen before.

It’s still very different from what we are used to seeing from U.S. animation, even from the Pixar films. But it feels more like a huge blockbuster now.

Man, I can’t wait to see this. And yet, I dread it because it couldn’t possibly be as good as I’m hoping.

(Via Cinematical)

Tyler Stout

Slashfilm has a post up featuring the works of artist Tyler Stout, who has done a number of posters for film festivals and special screenings, and who more recently did the artwork in the poster for Hellride. Worth a look.

Superhero Movie Poster

Oh God. I mean… Oh God.

The first Scary Movie premiered this particular type of poster design back in 2000, with all the various characters in the movie theater seats. It was rather clever considering this was very much a meta film that was all about joking both with the conventions and with particular moments from horror movies.

Then came Scary Movie 2 in 2001, and they made the exact same kind of poster. Then, in 2003, came Scary Movie 3. And they made the same of kind of poster. Then came Scary Movie 4 in 2006, and apparently the marketing people realized that the concept probably was all played out, so they put their thinking caps on and came up with a few different designs for the teaser posters that mocked particular movies. And then, for the final poster, they did the people in movie theater seats thing. Again.

Superhero Movie comes from many of the same people that were behind the Scary Movie franchise and is, in essence, a relaunch of that series with a new name. Obviously they thought they needed to shake things up a bit before the series got completely stale. But do they extend this shaking up to the poster design? No, they do the same god damned characters in the movie theater seats thing once again. For the fifth time.

And not only is the idea as stale as a piece of bread that fell behind the couch a month ago, this is probably the worst execution of it we have seen yet. I mean, take a good look at the tagline. “The greatest superhero movie of all time (not including the others).” Bravo. That is the kind of wit you can generally only get from an anonymous 12-year-olds writing Ain’t It Cool News Talkbacks.

At least David Zucker and Jim Abrahams, who respectively directed and wrote the last Scary Movie and who were a big part of the team behind Airplane!, aren’t involved in this one. So I’m free to hate without the need to weep for their destroyed reputation.

(Via Cinematical)

Final Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? Poster

I chuckled audibly the first time I saw this poster for Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?. I don’t know what I was expecting from a poster for this film, but a humorous version of the very famous Raiders of the Lost Ark poster wasn’t it.

I can see how it fits with the film tough. Spurlock’s documentaries aren’t as much about documenting anything as they are about expending some entertaining time with Spurlock himself. So here we have the guy front and center, as a Indiana Jones type explorer, travelling around the word seeking Osama Bin Laden and having some fun and adventures along the way. The poster tells you exactly what to expect from the movie, and in especial it tells people that this is a movie that is going to deal with some weighty subjects in an irreverent way.

I do worry that the poster might be a little too gimmicky. It catches your attention, and it’s the type of thing people will feel compelled to point to their friends when they first notice it in a theater lobby or when they first see it online. But the joke might get tired fast and not translate into interest in seeing the movie once it actually opens in the middle of April.

But its a fascinating way to get some attention for the movie, something that is always hard to do with a documentary.

(Via Cinematical)

New Iron Man Evolution Poster

Via Vic from ScreenRant we have this very cool looking new poster for Iron Man, which debuted at Wondercon.

Now, this being Wondercon and all one imagines that this poster was primarily done to appeal to a more geek audience, for lack of a better term. So it targets people that are more likely to be aware and interested in the movie, and who are also more likely to care about such details as the type of evolution that the Iron Man armor goes through. Also, an audience more likely to be impressed by the tech aspects of the designs.

But I think that the poster would work just fine with a more broad audience too. The trailer for Iron Man has made it clear that this is an origin story, and we have already seen that the armor goes from being a crass thing built in a cave to being the very slick and ultra cool beast people come to know as Iron Man. The poster ties well into that and I think a lot of people will be interested in the evolution the character goes through during the movie, as shown by the evolution of the armor.

Probably not the right choice for a main poster (which it isn’t), but a nice addition to the campaign.

(Found through Movie Marketing Madness)

The Ruins Posters

Ok, now this is interesting. Via Shock Till You Drop and JoBlo we have two posters for the Ruins. Both quite similar, but in one we have a hand coming out of the ground and in the other we have a human head.

I think there is much good to be said about these posters, starting with the fact that they are quite appealing to look at. But perhaps the most interesting thing about then is the way they turn the jungle and the ruins into a character, and a scary one at that.

I don’t know much about the movie, besides the fact that it is a horror movie and that it takes place in a remote Mexican jungle that contains an archaeological dig. The poster doesn’t tell me anything about the story beyond that, but it makes that setting into something claustrophobic and dangerous. The ruins and the jungle are closing in on the characters and burying them alive. And how can you fight those things? How do you fight an enemy that is all around you, engulfing you? How do you fight an enemy that lacks a heart you can stab or a brain you can shoot? It’s a scary prospect and the poster conveys that well.

Also, the particular look that the setting has in the poster is interesting. Most horror movies of late have relied on a urban setting. This is quite different and unique in a way that makes the movie stand out.

As for the release of two posters that are so similar it is, as I said at the beginning, interesting. I don’t think having both instead of any one of them adds much to the campaign, but I also don’t think it detracts from it at all. I find the hand poster slightly more effective at the task of giving out a claustrophobic and unsettling feel. After all, if your head is out at least you can breath. The expression on the face in the head poster is also a little too cool and collected for someone that is being buried by a forest. It’s almost as if the person has became part of the ruins, which perhaps is the idea, but I think ultimately makes for a less emotionally effective poster.

But really, not by much, I’m mostly splitting hairs here.

And to end, let me just say that I’m glad to find a good horror poster that doesn’t do neither the blood and gores/severed limbs thing, which we have seen in films like SAW and Hostel, nor the weird imagery thing that many Japanese remakes resorted too. Not that those things can’t make for good posters, but variety is the spice of life.

And in a Few Hours, One of These Will Join That Big List

No Country For Old Men

The main poster for No Country has Llewelyn Moss running through the plains, holding a shotgun a a case full of money. Meanwhile Chigurh looms over him ghost like. It’s pretty faithful to the core of the film, but in the transition to the poster we lose both the amazing beauty of the landscape and a lot of the tension that is present in the actual movie. The result is, I think, just an okay poster.

The character banners are nice as a part of a larger campaign. But they just aren’t very special when taken by themselves.

There Will be Blood

There Will be Blood started it’s poster campaign with a great teaser poster. But the rest of the campaign didn’t live up to that first effort. The focus has been on Day-Lewis, which is only fair since that is also the focus of the film. But none of the posters capture the intensity of Plainview. And once again the beautiful landscapes present in the movie don’t really translate well into the poster.

Atonement

The posters for Atonement are all very elegant and beautiful, and the main one captures a lot of what the film is about by having the two lovers separated, with Briony standing in the middle. But are they great, memorable posters? No. Although they are beautiful, they just aren’t unique enough to by anything much more than that.

Juno

Quirky, unique and fun. Just like the actual film. I especially like the way the poster turn the stripes in Juno’s shirt into a strong visual element that serves as a sort of brand for the movie.

But I do think that the posters for Little Miss Sunshine had many of the same virtues, and were in fact a little better.

Michael Clayton

f they gave Oscars based on posters I think Michael Clayton would be the favorite.

Some people have criticized this poster for being too much like a book cover. Well, it does look like a book cover, a very good one, but I don’t think that is a problem. If anything it adds to the sense that this a serious, meaty movie. And beyond that this is a creative image, that manages to offer us a close up of Clooney without making the poster just another boring big head poster.

Is it a great, historic poster that could stand side by side with the best posters for best picture winners? No, but it is really good.

Step Brothers Poster

This poster for Step Brothers follows the same type of simple and minimalistic design we have seen in several recent comedies, especially in the ones somehow associated with Judd Apatow. Just show the main characters, don’t add a bunch of extra elements. They may sport a a funny expression, but it should still feel like a normal expression, and not like they are trying to make a funny face. Use amusing but not over the top clothes. Use a simple and not too attention grabbing background. Too sum up, go for subtle instead of obvious.

This is the approach that was used in the posters for The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad, for example. It worked well in those, and I think it works very well here too. Will Ferrell has the perfect face and expression for this type of image. John C. Reilly doesn’t do as well, he seems to be trying to hard. But it still mostly works. The two definitely have chemistry together, which is apparent even in a still image like these. And the matching clothes are just the right kind of dorky.

I think it’s funny to compare this poster with the poster for Mike Myers’ Love Guru, which is also a character close up, but which goes for a much more obvious kind of humor.

This poster just feels a little outdated to me, like something that was funny years ago but that we have overgrown. Then again I didn’t really like Austin Powers back in the day, and those movies were huge. This plays too many of the same sensibilities, so perhaps the Power’s audience will eat it up and make the film a big success. We’ll see.

(Via Cinematical and IMPAwards)

79 Years of Best Picture Winners in Posters

This weekend the winners of the 80th Academy Awards will be announced. Which gives me a nice excuse to post a compilation of the posters for all of the best picture winners so far.

1927-1928 – Wings

(source)

1928-1929 – The Broadway Melody

(source)

1929-1930 All Quiet on the Western Front

(source)

1930-1931 Cimarron

(source)

1931-1932 Grand Hotel

(source)

1932-1933 Cavalcade

(source)

1934 – It Happened One Night

(source)

Click in the link below to see the rest of the posters.

Final Meet The Browns Poster

(click for a large version)

And here is the final poster for Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, which ditches the general design of the two previous teaser posters and goes for a more ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ approach.

As some of you probably remember all too well I really liked the first Meet the Browns teaser and deeply disliked the second. This final poster strikes me as much better than the second simply because it has a more attractive design and doesn’t rely on very lame humor. But it has nowhere near the elegant simplicity that made the first one so endearing. Its design is, in fact, very cluttered.

By I have to admit that it does have some strengths. Main among them is that this poster gets across the idea of meeting a big, strong, loving family very clearly, something that the other posters either failed or didn’t even try to do. It also makes the presence of a love story evident and gives eye candy in the form of Angela Bassett and Rick Fox.

It is not the kind of poster one might want to hang in a a wall, but because it has all those elements it just might work well with the intended audience. One sees the poster and gets a good feeling for all the elements that will be present, and they all look very familiar and comforting.

Still, I dislike the approach of selling a film by showing a laundry list of appealing things. It’s generally much better to choose one thing, or at least a theme, and try to sell that very well. It also tends to lead to better designs.