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Judging A Movie By It's Poster

We here at SF Signal love us some cool SF book covers, so should it be surprising that we (and by we I mean 'me') like cool SF movie posters? No! Recently we mentioned the worldwide posters for I Am Legend, which I thought were pretty cool.

In the past couple of days I've seen posters for three upcoming genre related movies, and I thought I'd look at them from the perspective of making someone interested in seeing the movie.

First up, we have the poster for the movie Jumper, starring everybody's second favorite wooden actor, Hayden Christiansen. Take a gander:


I don't know about you, but this poster does absolutely nothing for me. It tells me nothing about the movie itself, although being from the directory of The Bourne Identity is mildly intriguing. I do like what they've done with the world landmarks at the bottom of the trench coat, but that's it. Nothing else here says "Watch this movie!" to me. Maybe its because I'm non-plussed about the trailer.

Next we move on to a director whose stock has fallen after a string of poorly received movies. I'm talking about M. Night Shyamalan(a-ding-dong)'s new movie, The Happening. Take a look:


Alright, to start with, really, really horrible movie title M, may I call you M? The Happening sounds really corny and passive aggressive. Lot's of things happen, most of them not interesting. So of course, the words at the top of the poster are M. Night Shyamalan, to remind us of his latest, awesome pictures. But then we see the heavily overcast sky, with a bright light silhouetting a city skyline, and a bunch of abandoned cars. Very Day After Tomorrow-ish, only with Mark Wahlberg instead of Jason Robards, you decide which is better. This scene leads us to believe there is some sort of nuclear event 'happening', though being written by M., there's obviously a twist here. Probably a bunch of people spontaneously decide to turn on their flashlights, or something. Still, from a visual standpoint, I find this poster to be more interesting than Jumper's, and I'm mildly intrigued about the movie itself. Knowing the latest Shyamalan movies, I'll probably catch the synopsis on Wikipedia.

Which brings us to the coolest poster I've seen, the one that got me excited, and the one for the movie that is number one on my to see list, come hell or high water. Feast your eyes:


Aww yeah. Indy's back, and so is his whip. Maybe it's because I'm a fanboy, but I love everything about this poster. The art is great, the pose is awesome, and you have to love the skull in the background. For extra points, notice the Gray alien looking 'face' located directly above the nasal cavity on the skull. Spooky, and cool. Even the choice of font is cool, harkening back to the original movies. I am so going to see this on opening day, which is May 22nd. Being two days after my wedding anniversary, I wonder if I can talk The Wife into going.

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Comment on this post Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday December 13, 2007 at 7:04 PM
© 2007 SF Signal



I believe it would be "director" of "The Bourne Identity", no?

Just playing the game!

;-)

As for Mr. M's movie, with empty cars, a light in the distance, and a title like that, I figured some sort of "Rapture" event. Looks like a normal traffic pattern, not a war-induced panic. Or maybe a really big UFO abduction?

:^)

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Thursday December 13, 2007 at 9:48 PM

I agree. Isn't Jumper supposed to be about a kid? The guy on the poster looks to be in his mid-20s. That poster does nothing for me even though I think the original book sounds pretty good. It would actually probably drive me away. I think I'm not the target audience for that poster though.

The Happening looks very intriguing. I'm not so sure about nuclear disaster, I'm thinking something weirder since it's M. Night. His movies are not my thing so I probably won't see it, but good poster.

Indiana Jones. I was going to see it anyway, but that poster sure looks nice.

Posted by kristen on Thursday December 13, 2007 at 11:25 PM

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