Yes it is a tired design, one we have seen many times. But so are most poster designs this days. This has the merit of being a particularly good execution of a well known design. Harmonious, good balance of colors and the choice of the images that are used of the main characters strikes me as close to perfect. The result is a poster that exudes class and that is, despite the unoriginal design, nice to look at.

I would never call this a great poster. I need more creativity to call something great. In fact, I might need some more creativity to even unambiguously call it good. But it still a reminder that even if you are going for a safe, star centric poster there are many better options than the “classic” floating heads over the horizon look. And a little effort on the execution can make a big difference.

(Via IMPAwards)

The Sherlock Holmes posters so far have been pretty consistent visually, always sporting some fog, and blue tinge (a little more pronounced here) and backgrounds that scream period. Not earth shattering stuff, but distinctive enough to to be remembered and essentially ok for a movie which will be sold as “Robert Downey Jr. IS Sherlock Holmes!” anyway. Just get Downey out there looking like Sherlock and make a poster that isn’t completely boring to look at.

The humor is throwing me off a little bit though, especially as portrayed by the tagline. “Holmes for the Holiday”. Are we supposed to consider this to be an example of the supreme wit that will be displayed by Sherlock in the movie? My guess is that the film will have the kind of combination of drama and sometimes caustic humor that we see in, to pick the most obvious example, House, but the tagline isn’t exactly giving me confidence that they got the humor part of the formula right. And to be quite honest, Jude Law’s expression isn’t quite encouraging either.

This are probably just quirks of the poster, not very representative of the actual movie. But it would be nice if they were gone

(Via IMPAwards)

This is not exactly the poster one would expect from a vampire movie. Especially not after the first, much more genre standard, poster. But it does make sense once you take into account that the film takes place in the near future and that an important plot point is that vampires are now harvesting humans in blood farms. Which I guess is what is being depicted in here.

Considering the glut of vampire themed movies, tv series and books I imagine this was an attempt to differentiate Daybreakers by focusing more on it’s sci-fi elements. Understandable, and the image itself is pretty great.

However, it is a little hard to tell what is happening here if you didn’t already know the movie’s story. And there is a danger that comes with leaving the whole vampire theme so in the background. Danger of seeming simply like a sci-fi movie, and not as a vampire movie with sci-fi elements.

And yes, this is perhaps a little too reminiscent of the Matrix movie and their human harvesting installations.

So, yeah, I’m not sure how successful the effort was. But I appreciate what they tried to do, and the human harvest is probably the most striking element of the movie’s concept, so I’m not sure they could have done much better.

In the transition from the UK to America The Boat that Rocked got a new title and a slightly different poster. I guess they thought the original just wasn’t zany and fun enough, so we get more people walking the plank (including a girl!), a second, more party-centric boat, and some stuff in the title. Oh yeah, and curiously enough a different angle of the main boat.

I like the cleaner UK poster better, from a purely aesthetic perspective, but I understand what they are trying to do with the American one. I’m not sure they haven’t gone too much into Animal House territory but I understand. And it must be said that new title fits the poster’s concept much better.

Michael Moore last few movie’s have had some striking, funny and sometimes polemic posters. They always caught your attention and often presented a clever visual linked to the theme of the movie.

All of that only made me more disappointed at this latest one. It tries to be funny, but the joke is terminally lame. Moore doesn’t have his usual mischievous grin, instead having a very earnest serious expression, which isn’t nearly as effective. And the colors and drawings are just dull.

This second poster that surfaced last week has much more style and visual flair. So better in that aspect. But still, where is the fun? Still barely there.

Michael Moore has a brand. He makes a certain type of movie and people go to the cinema to watch that. These posters aren’t really doing a good job of selling that brand and that kind of movie.

(Via MoviePoster.Com and IMPAwards)

I don’t have a lot to say about this poster for Antichrist, made especially for Fantastic Fest. But I like the style and the dark undertones behind the superficially innocent image, so it seems worth posting.

(Via RowThree and MondoTees)

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.

I think the contrast between the welcoming sign and the dire warning scribbled in red would be more effective if we could actually read the original text. As it is this is just a scary sign. The town in the background does look quite placid, but it’s almost invisible when paired with the strong and attention grabbing foreground.

Still, if you take your time and pay attention to the poster it’s pretty easy to understand the basic concept of the movie: small and peaceful town goes crazy, bringing all kinds of horrors. And even if you don’t pay attention it is still a fairly memorable, clean and direct poster. So not too bad.

I wonder if they intend to incorporate the hazard suits that were so present in the marketing for the original movie in upcoming promotional materials.

I’m not sure if we need a poster of Scrooge flying around in the city, but if we do this one strikes as the better version. Not quite as over the top and zany looking as the last one. Less weird flying objects.

(Via IMPAwards)

I thought the days seeing the SAW posters find some clever way to work the film’s number into the poster image where over. I guess not.

Honestly, the tradition feels stale. And the way they created the number is clever, but also feels too contrived.

This poster looks lot like the posters we used to see for the earlier SAW films. Which in this case, unfortunately, just reinforces my feeling that the poster campaign has been all over the place, not quite sure whether to break with tradition, twist it slightly of simply follow it.