Monday 17 January 2011

Is it Art or Marketing? Either way it ROCKS!

So I'm sat here putting off sitting through "Dinner For Schmucks" and after posting the previous article and noticing how cool the poster for Buried is, it hit me....

No, not the light fitting from above but an idea. An idea to show you what I consider to be some of the greatest posters from the modern era. Maybe this is the start of me moving slowly away from the opinionated drivel I've been posting the last 5 days, who knows but let's try it. I mean, it could become a regular thing? Who knows? So with that let me present to you

VADER'S FAVOURITE POSTERS OF THE PAST 11 YEARS!!!!! PART I


To start with let's have a look at the poster from our previous post.


BURIED

Now, on first glances this is a complete throwback to something from the 60's. As noted in the previous article, I called it very "Hitcockian" and I'm right. Based on the design of the "Vertigo" poster by the poster creating God known as Saul Bass, this is as simplistic as it can come (also like the film really!). It get's to the point, it gives you an idea what the film will be about and gets you interested. The tagline, "Paul Conroy Isn't Ready To Die" fills you with dread, indicating that this is going to be a race against time.

Second on our list is also a poster from a previous article....

CLOVERFIELD

Well doesn't this one just get you interested right away. The initial thing you're drawn too is the fact that the Statue Of Liberty is missing her head! Anyone who's seen the original teaser trailer(Click Here for the trailer with my original review) will know the grisly end bestowed upon her. Bouncing down the street without a care in the world..... Also take a look at the ripple effect in the water, what could have caused that? Whatever it is, it's caused a huge hole in the skyline of New York. Many people were outraged with this poster as well as the film with the comparisons to 9/11 which personally is a bit silly, I mean what else could a monster do when attacking a city? Tip-Toe through? And check that tagline out, "Some Thing Has Found Us", well from the look of it I'd say yep it has, and it aint happy!! As for what it is, join the rest of us.....


THE DARK KNIGHT





The thing is though, Christopher Nolan ruined us by producing not just one amazing poster but 5 in total! I'm only going to talk about the main one further up but I couldn't write an article on posters and leave out these bad boys! Each one giving an insight into how this was going to be Batman's toughest challenge yet and how the game had changed. Firstly I'm a massive Batman movie geek, I mean SERIOUSLY! Secondly, wow wow wow! I mean we all know the sad part of the whole Dark Knight saga with the untimely death of Heath Ledger. Some say he struggled with entering such a dark place to give us a Joker like never seen before, others say he was just a junkie who got unlucky. Either way we have to thank him for giving us THE iconic comic book villain. Just reading the tagline, "Why So Serious?" sends a chill down my spine. I can hear him saying right now in that croaky voice he found somewhere inside of himself, paying special attention on the "Serious?" part. The eyes look like they've used a coffee cup and a permanent marker pen which to me (and I'm not a psychologist) shows a scatted mind, plotting and thinking always but maybe not fully formed? I don't know! The mouth though looks like the bat sign has been pained on with blood signifying how serious the Batman franchise has just become....and what dark places it will take you.


SPIDER-MAN

On writing about films I've come to realise something, I'm a bit of a fanboy. I mean ANOTHER comic book poster! but the thing is, this one takes me back. Walking through my local shit hole of a cinema, popcorn in my right hand, large coke in the other, I'm making my way to screen 5 when BOOM!!!!! I dropped everything and just stood there in awe.....Spi....Spide.....SPIDER-MANNNNNNNNNNN!!!! I mean in those days I didn't look at movie sites so much I just learnt what was coming out by checking out Apple's Trailer page or by going to the local cinema, but wow to say I was shocked and a little excited was an understatement! I mean come on, there's not even a title just a date....

There he was in all his blue and red glory, throwing up his rock horns, sorry, preparing to shoot his webbing to swing majestically through NYC. I reverted back to being about 5 when I first saw the abomination of the 70's version's of Spidey films and being totally and utterly in love with Spider-Man. I loved what he stood for and by how cool he was, shoot forward 12 years and that love was flowing through me again! I rushed home after the film (Don't ask me what I saw, I really don't remember I was WAY to excited!) and got straight online looking for every last little piece of information I could find. I soon learnt Sam Raimi of Evil Dead was directing (I'd found a crappy VHS copy of Evil Dead 1+2 around 6 months earlier and adored them giving me my other love, Horror!) and found an amazing teaser trailer with lots of little snippets for us fanboys to love (Doc Ock's painting with him named underneath it, a lizard pinbadge) very quickly though, the trailer was removed as the iconic scene at the end had a helicopter suspended in the air by a web in between the Two Towers. As you can understand, the trailers release date was around September of 2001 so it had to go. If you have a search around the internet you will find it, and I do recommend it as it's the type of teaser you long for as there isn't a single shot of Spidey in there!

So that's that for part I of my poster list. I hope, as always, that you've enjoyed the article and let all your friends know about it and get them to come have a look.

VADER OUT!







No comments:

Post a Comment