A while back there seemed to be a trend of comedy posters using very bright lime greens as background, in an apparent attempt to run away from the classic solid white background. Thankfully the trend has disappeared. I hope the above poster doesn’t mark the start of a trend of comedy posters with bright yellow backgrounds.
The “Apatow Style” comedy poster has been a bit overused, but in part that is because it gets a lot of things right. One is the softer backgrounds that are much easier in the eyes than either white or something like the above. They complement the foreground instead of distracting us from it.
I know it will suck. Know it! But the claws, the shirt and the face are all such memorable parts of my young adulthood that I can’t help but to feel some goosebumps.
Which is why it pays to do lame remakes on the cheap. The young ones want to experience something that was big before their time. And some older people, me included, just can’t help themselves. Some of us are forever going to the movies we know we shouldn’t waste our time on, always with that sliver of hope that this time we will get to kick the football.
I mentioned when I was talking about the motion poster that Jigsaw has been more and more present in the posters for the latest SAW movies. This poster reminds me that this is only part of the trend. The marketing in general for the latest films strikes me as having a strong self referential bend. Thus they might be pretty good at getting the “faithful” interested, but do little to convince someone like me, who has left the series long ago, or someone who never saw the films that there is something worth looking into here.
Not sure that is a bad idea. This series has long been established in the public’s mind, and trying to change the people’s already deeply held perceptions of it might very well be a fool’s game. Or at least economically unproductive.
On another note, the general look of this poster seems to follow the much darker look adopted by the series in the final poster for the last film.
I guess it’s only natural that we now have a motion poster for a SAW movie. Creative and memorable (not to mention bloody) posters have been a trademark of the series, but as the years and movies went by it became harder and harder to create yet more posters that maintained the level of quality of the series and didn’t just feel like the same old. So it makes sense to embrace the motion poster concept in order to have some more freedom to try to come up with something new.
And it’s a pretty good motion poster, although I wouldn’t say it’s clearly better than the average motion poster. Then again the average motion poster has been pretty good, probably due to the fact that not every movie feels compelled to create one.
The complete lack of blood, or even of any hint of it, is perhaps a little surprising. A little. The series’ posters seem to have been trending towards a sell more oriented around Jigsaw (or around the idea of him) over the last few movies. This is another step in that direction. And I have to say, I don’t mind the change.
And talking about weird, here is Madea as Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs.
And this is why I’m still excited about new posters for Tyler Perry’s movies. They might not always be great (sometime they stink in fact), they might not always be original, but at least there a sense of trying to do something special.
The poster works pretty well if you don’t see the Straw Dogs reference. In that case it’s a strong and emotion-laden image. A strong and emotion-laden image starring Madea, just in case you didn’t realize this film is part of the Madea franchise.
If you do get the reference, on he other hand, well, still a strong image but, like I said, kind of weird.
I think Peter nails it: these posters look like glossy magazine covers. Quite serious and somber glossy magazine covers in fact. Which strikes me as pretty odd, considering this is an epic adventure through an enchanted land. I’m sort of getting the adventure part, but the enchanted land and the epic escape me. Lots of beefcake though.
And doesn’t the Disney logo feel out of place in this image?
A Jake Gyllenhaal staring prince of Persia always struck me as a hard sell, and I have been curious about how they would try to market it. I definitely didn’t expect to see this, a poster that emphasizes so much Jake as very brooding rendition of the prince.
Maybe the idea here is that this type of image, and this depiction of the character, will be attractive to women? And once they convinced women to go see it guys should be an easy sell with some well placed fights and effects on the trailers? That is my best bet at this point, but I wouldn’t be surprised to be wrong. Like I said, kind of an odd choice.
So here is the story: as part of the promotion for it’s “Summer Under the Stars” marathon of films TCM created a bunch of new, modern posters for some of the movies that will be showcased. And the posters are really good.
I think comparing this sort of tribute posters to posters for new movies is unfair for two reasons. First, these are classic movies that have left strong images and ideas in our culture. Images and ideas that can be used in the composition of the poster. Second, since everybody knows about the movies there is no need to introduce them to the public, or even much need to really sell them. This allows a level of freedom to come up with interesting and creative concepts that is never afforded to the people coming up with poster for new movies.
But still, the set is a nice reminder of how beautiful and evocative good movie posters can be.
(thanks go to James for calling my attention to these)
As several commenters helpfully point out, this is a QR Code that apparently leads you to the movie’s trailer. A similar code can be seen on the Miss March poster.
Or at least that is what they would have you to believe!
This poster for Zombieland has an abundance of land, but a clear lack of Zombies.
I mean, it does a pretty good job of setting a carnival ride feel, of setting the worldwide scope of the threat and it’s a nice teaser image to boot. But it still feels more like Disasterland or Fireland. It needs some dead walking bodies ASAP!
Also of interest, prominent use of the Twitter page instead of an url to the official film page. Trend? Fad? Neither?
MoviePosterAddict 