John Carter (In Mars!) Poster

I think this is my favorite John Carter poster so far. Such lovely, epic seeming scenery. And a great pulp book cover style. I’m still not convinced I will like the film, but this poster points at what I want it to be: pulp, epic, bizarre, otherworldly fun.

Which is probably not what everybody wants. And when we talk about a film like this, with a mega budget, the hope must be for something with a very broad, Pirates of the Caribbean like appeal. And I’m really not seeing any that. Not here, not in the other posters.

(Via)

First The Hunger Games Poster

[Motion poster placed below the fold, because it’s noisy. The above is the very similar, but motionless teaser poster]

According to the press release this poster “really gives you a very FIRST glimpse at how the adaptation of the Suzanne Collin’s bestseller will be brought to life on the big screen!”. Well, that is one mighty fleeting glimpse. From that poster I can tell that the big screen adaptation will have motion, and not just static images. I think. They might have just added motion to the poster in order to make it one of those cool new motion posters.

That aside, it probably does what it is meant to do. It is a nice moving image that can be displayed around in order to remind/tell people that this is being turned into a movie, without actually showing anything about the movie. Good enough for a teaser, I guess.

I do wonder how pre-sold this movie is. Is this a Harry Potter/Twilight case where people already know the property and the most important task of the marketing is to reassure people that the work they love hasn’t been bastardized? Or is it important to sell the concept to a much wider array of people?

Either way, these posters are clearly geared towards the preexisting fan base. At this point in the campaign this is probably the right call either way. But I’m curious about how the marketing will evolve as we get closer to the release date.

Goodbye, Harry Potter Character Posters

It was a tradition. Every year, they would appear: poster after poster with pretty much the same background (dark bluish background, because sinister things were going on) but with a different character in each of them. Posters with the main characters, posters with the main villains, posters with whichever secondary character was slightly more prominent in that particular film. Then maybe some more posters with the main characters. All of them showcasing the characters best very very serious face because, again, sinister things were happening!

By the time the movie actually came out, they all sort of blended together in my mind. And after a few years of this, the posters of the previous years were sort of blending with the new posters also. After all, the kids weren’t really changing that fast from one year to the other anymore, and, honestly, how many posters with the same characters looking serious against a dark background, no matter how well designed individually, can you see before they all look the same?

And yet … when next year comes and we don’t get new character posters I will miss them. So used to seeing them! Like an old sweater that you can’t really bring yourself to throw out, because it was so warm at one point and you’ve gotten used to seeing it in the closet.

Rare Exports Posters

This poster for Rare Exports is so wonderfully wrong I just can’t stop starring at it. Obviously it’s a play on the traditional Christmas painting with some unique elements, the most clear of which is the caged and enraged Santa that is at the core of the movie’s concept. But the way in which they added these elements, and the sheer oddness of the the way in which Father Christmas is painted makes the image so, so weird.

For contrast, see this earlier poster. Also a twist on the same kind of painting, but much more sober and professional looking. Honestly, it probably does a better job of selling the actual movie, but as an image it is a lot less interesting than the latest poster.

The movie also had a teaser poster. Also sober. Also not very likely to cause nightmares.

(Via IMPAwards)

New Moon Posters

So, here we have a bunch of poster for the new Twilight movie. First, Werewolves!

Now, Vampires!

And, to finish off, we have … hmmm, more Vampires? With a human or two thrown in there? I think?

Ok, ok, I don’t actually know anything about the series, so I’m not sure what I’m talking about. And honestly, the posters aren’t exactly making me feel like changing that.

There are, to me, a couple of highlights in these. The first is the splashes of red and black in the “Vampires” poster, which help to distract from the overwhelming brown that permeates all the posters. The second is the embrace of the two main characters, which, to me, gives the only spark of emotion to be found in the three images. That aspect works, and I realize that maybe to the fans that is the most important thing.

More Where The Wild Things Are Posters

What could I add that I haven’t said before? Nothing, I guess. But I can’t not post these character posters. That would be a treason of my very palpable excitement at these creatures and at the way they are being presented to us.

(Via IMPAwards)

Where The Wild Things Are Poster

This is not my favorite image from Wild Things. Not by far. But I still can’t help but to appreciate the mesmerizing dream like tone that all the posters (and the trailer) for this movie have had. Endless fascinating, even in the lesser incarnations, like the one above.

(Via IMPAwards)

Prince of Persia Posters

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.

(Via Empire)

G.I. Dull

I complained that in the last batch of posters the characters in G.I. Joe all looked the same. Well, in this poster a much better job is done of distinguishing the bad guys from the good guys. The good guys are surrounded by blue flames and background. The bad guys are surrounded by red flames and background. I think. I mean, that is the tradition, right? Though hey all look like bad guys too me.

Considering that the character design in this movie is apparently very dull I wish they had gone with some action posters, showcasing some interesting backgrounds and battle sequences. But no, all the posters are squarely focused on the characters. Not sure that was a great choice.

(Via IMPAwards)

Feels Like Christmas

This poster for A Christmas Carol hits just the perfect balance between seeming like a hundred posters you have seen before and still having enough fresh elements to appear modern. Which is exactly as it should be.

Obviously you can’t have a poster that makes the film seem like something straight from the 80’s. And yet a big part of Christmas is that warm feeling of tradition, so you want to hit that as hard as you can, especially in something that is a new version of a many times retold story.

And on that note, here are some other Christmas Carol posters. The one for the Muppets has to be my favorite (artwork by Drew Struzan!).

(Via IMPAwards, Movieposter.com, MovieGoods)