Posterizing: Holy Fiery Bats, Batman!

As the summer rolls along, we get to see more new posters for some of the year’s soon-to-be biggest hits. A few indie films have also been peppered in with them for good measure.

‘The Dark Knight Rises’

I was partial to the initial poster for the movie. This one? Not so much. It simply takes the old poster that featured crumbling ‘Inception’-like buildings forming the Batman symbol, gives it an overlap of fiery doom, and pastes Batman in the middle with his face overshadowed. Ooooh, moody!

‘360’

I had no idea this movie existed until I saw this poster. While it’s a nice break from the norm of floating head collages, I must say that blending Rachel Weisz’s face into Jude Law’s face, which then goes into Anthony Hopkins’ face, is very disconcerting. There you are looking at a beautiful actress, and suddenly without warning you’re staring at Hopkins’ wrinkled mug. Weird.

‘The Pact’

I had to include this poster because I saw ‘The Pact’ at Sundance and it is, I have to say, one of the stupidest horror movies I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen many. How many times have we seen the image of a face and hands pushing through a seemingly solid barrier? What a tired image. This movie is so terrible that I laughed all the way through it. The poster art doesn’t shoot too high either.

‘Excision’

Now here’s an effectively creepy horror poster, which by the way is also another for movie that premiered at Sundance earlier in the year. I didn’t see the movie, so I can’t tell you if it’s good or bad, but I can tell you that the poster gives me the heebie-jeebies.

‘Skyfall’

As much as I’m looking forward to ‘Skyfall’, which will hopefully be a return to form for James Bond, this poster leaves me wanting. It’s just so generic. I wouldn’t have a gripe if the image was used cleverly, but it isn’t. Daniel Craig has simply been pasted on top of the iconic 007 gun barrel. I can understand that this is supposed to help recall the Bond films of old, but there must have been a more artistic way of doing so.

‘Prometheus’

I really enjoy this one. With all the recognizable faces in the movie, the poster opts to go with an image that only shows two faces, and you sort of have to strain to figure out whom they are. (Left: Noomi Rapace. Right: Charlize Theron.) The rest of the bodies are unknown, although I’m thinking the one in the foreground with his head turned is probably Michael Fassbender. It doesn’t matter. Though. This poster feels artistic without going overboard. It still conveys the insane destructive nature that the movie will certainly have, and gets you excited to see it. It’s a fun poster because it kind of reminds me of artwork from old sci-fi magazines.

11 comments

  1. Alex

    Bond teaser posters are always kinda generic. They usually just have a prominent part of the mythos (a gun, a female silhouette, the gun-barrel logo) front-and-center, and mostly exist just to say “Hey, we’ve got another 007 movie coming down the pipe!” And honestly, that’s good enough for me. I know we’ll get another one before the movie’s out.

  2. JM

    If they wanted fire, they should have done a Bane poster, with the tag “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

    ‘360’ is a sex drama from the playwright of ‘Frost/Nixon’ and the director of ‘City Of God,’ but the festival reviews are poor and its getting dumped in August.

    ‘Excision’ I heard was the most shocking film of Sundance, twice as disturbing as ‘The Woman.’ Imagine ‘Heathers’ directed by Cronenberg.

    ‘Skyfall’s poster was made for my dad. The iconic gun barrel is probably the only way to market Bond to the original fan base.

    ‘Prometheus’ is making me take back everything I’ve ever typed about Tom Rothman. He gave Ridley a massive budget, greenlit an R rating, and is marketing the shit out of this. He is literally raping my cynicism.

  3. Niro

    I believe the Skyfall poster is meant to reflect the film’s apparent focus on the London Underground tube. It looks like Bond’s walking through an Underground tunnel and the gun barrel indentations are superimposed on the walls of the tunnel.

  4. “Excision” features Marlee Matlin? Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve seen her receive a starring role on the silver screen!

    And who is Annalynne McCord? I have never ever heard of her! How can she be credited above Malcolm McDowell?

    • Annalynne McCord was one of the stars of the recent ‘90210’ reboot and had a recurring role in ‘Nip/Tuck’. I’m going to assume that she’s cedited above Malcolm McDowell because she probably has a larger part in the movie than he does.

      McDowell has watered down his marquee value in recent years by taking pretty much any walk-on role that anyone will offer him in any project. He can’t say no to a paycheck.

      • Alex

        So I’m guessing you’re not counting Mr. Plant-Healer-Dude on Heroes as the pinnacle of Malcolm McDowell’s career?

      • Hmm, makes sense. Still, it’s THE guy from “A Clockwork Orange”. I wonder if Annalynne McCord (that’s 2x 2 n’s and 2 c’s!) will ever make a movie with that much lasting influence.