The Spirit Art School Poster

The Spirit has one the most interesting poster campiagns of this year, and they apparently plan on keeping it interesting. The latest gambit is is a parternership with nine art schools for the creation of nine student-designed campaigns, which will, I assume, include posters. The first poster resulting from this partnership can be seen above, and it come from the students at the The Art Institute of California – San Diego.

It’s a cool concept, although the style clashes a bit with the general style being used in the film’s advertisement and with the design of the title. But that’s the good thing about all these posters and campaigns: you can afford to have some oddballs and to try some different approaches.

I wonder if we will be seeing more of this type of thing.

In unrelated non-news I’m reminded of the poster for Hello, Dolly featuring Richard Amsel’s work, which he created as a student and which won a national competition.

The students coming up with campaigns for The Spirit are excused if they can’t come up with something quite as great as this.

Remakes and Sequels: Still Milking My Childhood

The Friday the 13th series has a special place in my heart. The very first real horror movie I ever saw, back when I was a tender and innocent child, was a Friday. Not entirely sure which. I would afterwards be scared time and time again by the other installments of this great series.

As I’ve grown older I have tended to avoid seeing the films again because, as it turns out, they are mostly really bad. Something that my easily impressionable child self didn’t quite notice. But I still love the idea of the movies, and the mask still sends chills down my spine.

So, I was probably somewhat excited about this new poster, right? As it turns out, not really. Somethings work best as memories, and I apparently have no interest whatsoever in a re-imagining of Jason.

Which is not to say that there is a problem with the poster. This is a Comic Con poster and the film is still far from being released. So they are just trying to build a little bit of excitement, and the mask, which is THE symbol of the franchise, probably works as fine as anything.

I think Terminator lacks such a clear iconic image. The machine face we see in the teaser is probably as close to that as you are ever going to get, but those films were actually good, and had several memorable elements, instead of just one. Going forward that is probably going to help the campaign as they will have more to work with.

Of course, something they won’t have is Arnold, which is a bit of a problem since he is so closely associated with the series. And Salvation has much loftier goals, Box-office wise, than the Friday remake. Part of reaching those goals will have to be creating some iconography that is particular to the new movie and that shows what about it is new and exciting.

But there is plenty of time for that in the future. For now it’s more than fine to wallow in the past.

(Via IMPAwards)

Another Blindness Poster

I might be wrong, but I think this is the first non-character Blindness poster to focus exclusively on Jullianne Moore, who plays the only person not affected by the blindness epidemic. Before that we had posters that focused on the general concept or that gave space to the all-star cast.

The focus on the character played by Moore can also be seen on the tagline: “In a World Gone Blind, What if You Were the Only Person Who Cold See?”. So the poster asks us to envision ourselves as her, the only seeing person in the in the middle of the blind. This is a slight change of focus from the sell we had before, which asked us to imagine what would happen if the world was affected by an epidemic of blindness. It’s a more specific, more personal and I think a little more effective focus.

Visually the poster maintains the same style we saw in the last few posters, which I appreciate. But the image of Moore’s face with all the hands around strikes me as more powerful emotionally and more memorable than what we had in the past posters. So overall I think this is a step up for the campaign. Not necessarily a huge step, but a step nevertheless.

(Via IMPAwards)

Lakeview Terrace Poster

Ok, I think the idea behind this poster is pretty clear. We have Sam Jackson as a cop, looking very menacing. That look is contrasted with the background which shows a quiet suburb at sundown. What we are supposed to get is that beneath the seemly peacefulness of the surroundings is Jackson’s character, ready to disrupt the good times by going psycho. Or maybe, if the film is feeling subversive, his brutality and violence is what maintain the appearance of security and peace. The fact that is sundown probably is meant to refer to the transition between the safe day and the dangerous night when Sam lets his dark side loose.

But I get all that because I know that this is supposed to be a serious and dark movie. When I saw the poster my first thought was buddy action/comedy cop movie. When I noticed Jackson was alone I dropped the buddy, but my general impression was still action/comedy, with perhaps an unusual dose of kickassery.

I think my problem with the poster is that Jackson just doesn’t come across as that menacing. Perhaps that’s because I have become used too him playing characters that are supposed to be scary in less than serious movies, so I don’t take him as seriously anymore. But I still think he can seem more dangerous than this.

And the background also seems way too comforting. Plenty of images and posters have been composed with the idea of making seemly safe suburbs look uncomfortably dangerous, so the idea of danger bubbling under the peaceful exterior is not new and it can be pulled off. But I just don’t think it works here.

Which is all too bad, because the underlying idea could make for a cool poster.

(Via Cinematical)

A Tale of Two Posters

Ok, this is interesting. It is similar to the artwork used to sell the game, making the brand identity clear. It’s a strong image with dark colors that sets an engrossing mood. It’s also different enough to stand out and be noticeable. It’s a bit exaggerated and over the top, but not too much and the style fits with the game and with a certain kind of film.

But, what is it that you say? There is another poster? Great! Let’s take a look at it.

This, on the other hand, is way over the top.

I mean, I know that the original game lays it on pretty thick, and like I said above I think images that are a little exaggerated have a place in the campaign.

But this is just too much. It looks pretty good from a distance, when all you can see is the rays of light. But up close the imagery and symbolism is just too exaggerated and in your face to still be effective. The whole thing just ends up looking silly.

But one out of two isn’t too bad.

(Via ComingSoon)

Two Posters for the Remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still

Just the other day I found myself taking a long hard look at the classic poster for The Day the Earth Stood Still, which you can see below. A truly great fifties poster.

Because of that I had the images of that earlier poster in my mind when I went over to ComingSoon to look at the posters for the new version of TDESS , especially the image of the alien. And I was very pleased to find that my pal one eye was also featured in the new posters.

Of course, despite his reappearance the two posters are very different, as they have to be. The original poster had a style that was very much of its era. The new poster is more modern, has almost none of the cheese of the original and chooses to show very little and to be mysterious. It fits our own movie making time. And in part because of that it fails to be as good as the original.

But that is not exactly scathing criticism, and I actually really like the poster.

I don’t quite like the other poster released today as much, even tough I think it might be more effective with the general public.

This is in many ways a typical amazing and scary thing happens bringing the world to a stop poster. Which seems like a very specific thing but is a recurrent movie and poster theme. It is very well executed, but I do wish it showed a larger area being paralyzed, in other to make the movie feel more epic in scope.

But still, I complain too much. two solid posters for the remake.

Japanese Dragonball Poster

Let me make a confession: I used to be a Dragonball fan. Really, really liked the show. And back on those old days I used to drool at the thought of a Dragonball movie.

But the years have passed, my tastes have changed and boy is this looking like a bad idea now. Looking being the important word. The movie, from all I have seen, simple looks wrong. It seems like they are trying to be somewhat faithful to the comic/animation, but I think that particular look just doesn’t work when translated to film. They needed to change things quite radically.

Many recent comic book movies have understood that what works on a drawing (moving or otherwise) doesn’t always work on a live action movie. So the X-Men all use the same black uniform and Batman uses dark suit that actually looks like a decent armor. When transitioning these characters to the movies the choice was made to make things a little less colorful and more real. The resulting movies weren’t great just because of that, of course, but it helped.

Maybe I’m wrong about how the film looks. I would love for that to be the case. But this poster isn’t giving me any new hope.

And even if the look worked on film, Just Chatwin as Goku is just all kinds of wrong.

As for the poster itself, it’s pretty fine. It’s early and they don’t want to show too much. So they go with the iconic character, but only show him from the back. Add some other gripping visual element (the dragonball) and a recognizable scenery (the middle of nowhere) and you have yourself a nice little teaser poster. Original? Hardly, but it works.

Or it would, if had some decent graphic elements to work with.

(Via DbTheMovie, thanks to Ines for pointing it out to me)

Jim Carrey Says Yes to Goofy Faces

Well, this is certainly a much more “welcoming” than the last poster for a Jim Carrey movie.

The poster for Yes Man is very breezy, light and bright. It also seems to have some of the visual elements that you might find in a motivational poster or self-help book cover, which fits with the story of a man who decides to say yes to everything for one year. It obviously exaggerates some of those elements for humor, but what I like about the poster is that it’s not too over the top. If it wasn’t for Carrey’s silly grin you almost could believe it’s a serious attempt at making you feel better about life.

Almost.

The end result is not only funny, but actually still a little motivational. And that makes the movie seem like a very cheerful light experience. Just the kind of thing that millions of people want.

(Via IMPAwards)

Conan Then

The above poster for the very first Conan has become sort of a cult item, and it’s remarkable for being pretty consistent with much of the artwork done for the Conan character over the years. Still, considering the sheer amount of pulpy goodness associated with character (just check the covers for Savage Sword of Conan) I think they could have done better.

But the poster is still miles better than what we got for the next film.

The second film was a lot less successful than the first. Coincidence? Mostly, yeah, but I’m sure the poster didn’t help.

New Clone Wars Posters

It’s obvious that these posters for Clone Wars are trying quite hard to look like classic Star Wars posters. And to some extent they are successful. The connection is obvious and the style immediately recognizable.

But for me that just makes it even more painfully clear that this isn’t a real Star Wars movie. The similar styles force me to compare the cartoonish look with the usual Star Wars visuals, and quite frankly the visuals of the animation don’t really measure up.

Perhaps I’m just biased against the posters for this film because I really don’t like the whole idea of releasing this hybrid movie/series thing. But these feel like mere shadows of something great.

(Via LatinoReview)