Posterpalooza Pt 1: Hitchcock, On the Road, The Wolverine
Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 8:50PM Not all posters inspire multiple thoughts like Django Unchained or The Guilt Trip so let's do a wee collection of new objects du marketing.
To quote Heidi Klum "it looks cheap, no?" I really can't fathom why they can never take photos of stars together during any of the months in which they film to make posters. Why are they always pieced together later by photoshop? Imagine how great movie posters would be if they did them like the promotional photoshoots you'll sometimes see movies do for magazines like Vanity Fair. But enough of that rant. Let's talk about the tagline.
Behind every Psycho is a great woman."
That clearly positions this as a comedy and, perhaps surprisingly, announces Helen Mirren as the MVP. Best Actress here she comes. Given the comic slant its path to Golden Globe Glory and thus Academy eyeballs is secured. I'm seeing the film tomorrow morning. Can't wait.
Three more posters after the jump...
ON THE ROAD (2012)
I haven't been playing nicely with the internet lately so I have no idea how well this one was received by the great masses of movie blogs. I can't say I'm super fond of it, as I generally don't like horizontal photo collage posters. That strategy feels too indecisive --as if the film in question can't choose which way to represent itself. I liked this movie and Kiki and Viggo are definite highlights but I think they should have focused on the central trio here (Sam, Garrett & Kristen) instead inside a car and made the poster lustier, younger, and less... I don't know "Great Literature!" Stuffy.
THE WOLVERINE (2013)
I've had trouble getting excited about The Wolverine since X-Men Origins: Wolverine took all the joy out of that particular fandom. Then the sequel lost its actually visionary director (Darren Aronofsky). But these teaser posters are both Gorgeous with capital Gs and I couldn't be happier at the nods to Japan both visually and verbally (that "Rising Soon" is kind of a subtle pun though). Still, other than a potentially amazing setting, it's hard to know whether to get excited about it on principal: James Mangold's movies (Walk the Line, 3:10 To Yuma, Knight and Day, etcetera) don't have strong directorial signatures and the quality varies; Hugh Jackman is A+ as the title character but he's played this role a lot. Will he find anything new to bring to it?
I'm not sure how closely they'll follow the comic book narrative that first took Wolverine to Japan to meet Yukio and the rest but it was a good one back in the day.
Do any of these posters make you want to see the movies more than you already did?
Alfred Hitchcock, Oscars (12), Wolverine, movie posters, taglines
Reader Comments (13)
Why do Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren look like they were just formed out of wax?
Also, I really hope Toni Collette has a substantial role and she just kills it (of course she will if she's given the chance). For such an extremely talented actress I feel like she doesn't work nearly enough.
I kind of like the Hitchcock poster, if only because it reminds me I live in a world where Toni Collette gets higher billing than Jessica Biel.
However, as much as I'm all for leading roles in Hollywood for women of a certain age, it will be weird if the Hitchcock movie is more of a vehicle for Helen Mirren, kind of like when we get The Leo Tolstoy Story starring Helen Mirren.
And I agree, those Wolverine posters are beautiful.
The Wolverine posters are fabulous!
I also like the poster for On the road. It has a certain vintage feeling which I think is fitting for the story.
Check out the poster for Stoker!!!
Mike in Canada -- I live in that world too. Isn't it fabulous?
James -- there's a certain disturbing amount of inanimate object feel to those bodies!
It's interesting that the 5th slot for Oscar's Best Actor - assuming
Day-Lewis, Hawkes, Phoenix and Washington are frontrunners - will come down to three Golden Globe Comedy/Musical contenders - Jackman, Hopkins and Cooper.
First word on Hitchcock is Mirren & Hopkins are excellent esp Mirren,Johansson is fine but has no arc,D'arcy miscast as Perkins voice/mannerisms incorrect,Ralph Machhio good in a 3 minute scene,Biel has the arc and is good then Colette/Huston.Stchulbarg who have little to do.
Mike - I love Toni Colette as much as anyone but I don't get why everyone likes to knock on Jessica Biel. I think she's pretty decent actually. It's not like she's Jessica Alba.
Maybe because she makes the same open-mouthed, parted-lips expression while sleepwalking through virtually every performance aside from The Illusionist. Just a hunch.
Not a fan of this movie poster. Some of the block lettering is sharp, and it has a 60s vibe going on, but it's mostly just boring.
I'm getting tired of super hero/comic book movies and I tend to yawn at the thought of another one, but then I think of an entire film of Hugh Jackman mostly sans shirt and I'm ok with another Wolverine.
And while I don't like the photoshopped together look either or the awful tagline, I do like that the poster evokes a bit of that era. More interesting would be if they'd used the hand drawn movie poster illustrations of that time but that would require effort.
Amir: I think Alba doesn't get as much criticism as Biel because Alba was in Sin City and Machete, while the closest Biel's been to films nearly that good is The Illusionist, which isn't exactly an actual counterpoint to all her bad film appearances.
5 Worst films with Alba: Fantastic Four, Good Luck Chuck, Awake, The Love Guru, Little Fockers. Counterbalanced by: Machete and Sin City.
5 Worst films with Biel: Blade: Trinity, Stealth, Chuck and Larry, the aesthetically ugly animated feature Planet 51 and the Total Recall remake. Counterbalanced by: As already mentioned, The Illusionist, which isn't that much of a ballast when you think about it.
Jessica Biel is far better than Alba. Biel has actually given good performances in her time.
I *love* The Wolverine's calligraphy poster, but the one above it is (sadly) not official. As in, it was made and was hung up in the Fox lot, but it was a rejected design.