Welcome back! With the success of last month’s film poster round-up we’re back to do it all again. Looking over March, I have come across some movie marketing worthy of praise… and some that most definitely is not. Whether it be goats, cougars, brothers or dragons, there’s plenty to discuss.
The Men Who Stare at Goats
The line-up design has been a familiar key art aesthetic for decades, and yet this George Clooney wartime comedy manages to do it in a way that feels original and definitely very funny. I dare you not to at least raise a chuckle upon seeing the titular goat – credited as “Goat”, naturally – alongside George Clooney and Kevin Spacey. The silliness continues with goat puns like “no goats, no glory” and in the end it makes this poster refreshing and one to cherish.
Brothers
One of my pet peeves is when a movie poster is awash in empty white space. Only on rare occasions do I think doing this actually works. What is it doing there and how does it sell your movie? While I could take or leave the emptiness on this occasion, it’s not as distracting here and thankfully the bottom half adds a subtle visual motif with the juxtaposition between the relationship of Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman and Portman and Jake Gyllenhaal. It plays with the audience and adds intrigue that would have otherwise eluded it.
Alice in Wonderland
Of all the posters for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, this is definitely my favourite. I like that it is Alice front and centre with Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter hidden away in the background amongst other familiar sights for those with knowledge of the Alice story. Unlike many of the other designs for this movie, the colours are not garish and too in-your-face, and does a good job of showing Burton’s creation. Now, let’s not talk about the actual movie…
The Rebound
Oh. My. God. What has happened to Catherine Zeta-Jones’ waist? Has it been sucked into the washing machine that she is uncomfortable sitting atop? Did her co-star Justin Bartha devour it leaving just a flimsy pair of knickers to show for it? Did it get zapped to another dimension along with the roundness of her face and any hint of imperfections in her legs and arms? Or did an over-zealous designer get a little bit too excited with the Photoshop? Yes, I think that’s it. Not one pixel of this poster looks real. It’s as CGI-heavy as Avatar!
How to Train Your Dragon
I recently noticed a frustrating trend with the many posters that have been released for Dreamworks’ latest animated film. It’s a bit disappointing to see the same image merely superimposed on a new backdrop, which is exactly what has been done here. Add to that the fact that the dragon of the title is such a drab colour and there isn’t much to excite with these images. At least this final design has a neat visual gag but other than that, it doesn’t elicit much excitement and lacks the colourful zing of last year’s Dreamworks effort, Monsters vs Aliens.
The Bounty Hunter
Last year we had The Ugly Truth in which we were meant to want Katherine Heigl to fall in love with Gerard Butler despite him being an egotistical, misogynistic, repulsive oaf. That movie had a great movie poster though! This year we’re meant to want Jennifer Aniston to fall in love with Gerard Butler despite him being an egotistical, misogynistic, repulsive oaf. So not much has changed except this time the poster is just as offensive as the plot. With Butler sitting on Aniston and hanging handcuffs from his finger, it’s all a bit repugnant. If you saw The Bounty Hunter based on this poster then you shouldn’t complain about how badly you were duped.
My One and Only
And so we come to some of the worst Photoshopping I have ever seen. Far worse than the hodge-podge that you saw with The Rebound. Quite clearly none of these actors were even in the same time zone when these cast photos were taken. In fact, I don’t even think these actors’ heads were in the same country as their bodies, since everyone looks so unattached and discombobulated, not to mention how everyone is looking in different directions or that some are nigh on unrecognisable. And then there’s poor ol’ Kevin Bacon, just hanging around like he got lost and ended up at a photo-shoot. Dreadful.
Be sure to join us next week when I look at Date Night, Hot Tub Time Machine and Australian films Beneath Hill 60 and Accidents Happen.
Nice work as always, Glenn.
And you’re right, the goat did make me giggle.
“It’s as CGI-heavy as Avatar!” – Haha. Love your work Glenn. always leaves me giggling.
Oh my goodness, the poster for ‘My One and Only’ is just hilarious, especially poor little Kevin Bacon – he looks like the unpopular kid at high school or something. Great column Glenn
Oh Kevin, poor lonely Kevin.