Poster Analysis: THOR: THE DARK WORLD (2013)

The main theatrical poster for 'Thor: The Dark World', while heavily reminiscent of the poster Marvel's latest release 'Iron Man 3', is a strikingly beautiful piece of art. With a blend of modern and fantasy settings, 'Thor' has always had the upper hand regarding visual imagery and there is no waste of it here. The poster is a overwhelmingly epic yet simultaneously somewhat understated design with the film's lead character and the huge cast of supporting actors depicted in heroic poses in a largely desaturated blue colour scheme with traces of gold and red. Despite the use of photo editing software, the image is composed and completed in such a way as to emulate a painting, much like those of famed film poster designer Drew Struzan, while unfortunately no longer in demand, drew photo-realistic depictions of film's characters and settings and arranged them in a memorable and visually stunning way as to enforce the 'epicness' of the film upon the viewer. A layer of what can only be assumed of snow has been digitally added over the top of the image to add to the artistic effect, falling in line with the general icy cold atmosphere of the poster (suitable considering its Winter release date).

Thor is depicted in traditional hero pose, with hammer in hand, looking off to the left side of the poster, as are Loki and Sif, however the characters of Jane, Odin, and the villain Malekith are facing the viewer. For the first two of these characters this is presumably done as they are the most sympathetic - Jane as the only human character, as well as being the lead's romantic interest, and Odin as caring father of Thor - and so relatable to some extent. With the latter, who is depicted as a giant head in the clouds looming over the other characters, this is to emphasise his villainy through his fierce eye expression and intense face. A number of other characters as well as spacecrafts and the architecture of Asgard fill the rest of the image while the names of the four key players - well at least the most famous here in the established Marvel Cinematic Canon - 'Chris Hemsworth', 'Natalie Portman', 'Tom Hiddleston' and 'Anthony Hopkins as Odin' are aligned along the very top of the poster in traditional fashion with the same serif font used in most Marvel releases, while the usual selection of credits appear at the bottom. There is a distinct lack of a tagline, however this is not something Marvel have tended to include as they probably think its takes away from the power of the imagery rather than adds to it.

Magazine Analysis: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012)

Rather than analyse the EMPIRE or Total Film's covers that feature 'The Dark Knight Rises' on the cover, I have chosen to have a look at the edition of The Hollywood Reporter that was published following the film's release and the midnight showing tragedy in Aurora, Colorado where a gunman opened fire on an unsuspecting audience. Unlike the aforementioned magazines, this cover is not intended to advertise the movie but rather uses the iconography of the film and its lead character to provide a powerful design that relates to the issue's key article focusing on the tragedy and its effect on the film and the future of cinemas. The design of this poster is very minimalist - Batman himself can only be identified by the white outline that is the curvature of his mask with the iconic ears at the top, both covering and being covered by the magazine's logo. There is a glow around the image of Batman that fades into the surrounding black of the image, with the large percentage of the cover being drenched in complete darkness with the text completely composed of white lettering with a mix of simple serif and sans-serif fonts.

The key tagline used to promote the feature focused on 'TDKR' is 'Tragedy at the Movies', and this is reflected in the red tear drop dripping from Batman's unseen eye - the cover's solitary use of colour. This very precise use of colour helps us to appreciate and focus on what is shown in colour, much like what Spielberg did in his seminal film 'Schindler's List'. The other text featured on the poster includes an explanation of the various parts of this feature on the film, in addition to titles relating to a series of other articles about other stories in film and television. In conclusion, while this is certainly a beautiful and poignant cover and an interesting one to analyse in comparison to the conventional covers of EMPIRE and Total Film, this is not really the sort of approach I will be taking in regards to my own magazine front cover.

Poster Analysis: X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014)

The teaser posters for next year's 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' are interesting in their attempt to combine the faces of both actors for each of the characters of Professor X and Magneto. The general concept behind the new film is that it features the casts of both the original X-Men trilogy and the semi-prequel/reboot 'X-Men: First Class', and I believe that this series of posters demonstrates this well enough. The design of these posters has background of the image featuring the actor who plays the older version of the character (Patrick Stewart in the case of Prof. X and Ian McKellen with Magneto) in black and white with part of their faces obscured by the shape of an x that contains the face of the actor of the character's younger counterpart (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, respectively). Applause must given to the designers of this poster who have clearly achieved a lot by combining the faces of actors who in real life only bear slight resemblance, yet in this poster all of their facial features match up - for instance their jaws, their lips and their hairlines (well not in the case of Patrick Stewart). Both characters are in close-up with their eyes aimed directly at the audience, with a slight feeling in this poster that they are 'recruiting' you to their cause by the way they are looking.

Each character is given a distinct colour scheme - Prof. X has a blue x, while Magneto's x is red - with the obvious difference being that each character represents a different side of the good and evil scale, even though the synopsis of this film suggests that a new threat unites both characters together, which is not something that the posters are suggesting with their use of colour. Other than the closeup images of the lead characters there is little to be found in the rest of this poster other than the year of release which is 2014 and the movie studio logos, in this case Marvel and 20th Century Fox. No cast or crew credits appear and, unless my eyes deceive me, there appears to be a Twitter hashtag containing the film's title. Similarly to previous posters I have analysed, the studio is aware of the growing popularity of social networking and so are capitalizing it by encouraging (albeit with a tiny font at the bottom) by suggesting audiences should tweet about the film. Director Bryan Singer is a known user of Twitter and in fact has been sharing with millions of Twitter followers the development of the film, from casting to production photos, who presumably will then share these to their own followers.

Magazine Analysis: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (2014)

While at first glance, and even more so after analysing it for the blog page, the cover for 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' edition of EMPIRE Magazine is somewhat hideous but it also full of things to talk about regarding layout, text and design. With a large image of Spider-Man slap bang in the centre of the poster with his iconic fingers raised in web-shooter fashion, EMPIRE are both attracting and deterring potential readers. A highly recognisable figure, people of all ages may be drawn to the vibrant colours of his costume. but his theatricality, and the manner in which it is displayed in this cover, may put off some people. In accordance with the Spider-Man theme, modification has be done to the title of the magazine in order for it to relate to the film's plot. The antagonistic character of Electro (who is not featured on the cover) has the power of controlling electricity and so it only seemed fitting for EMPIRE to change their logo to reflect this power and so it is styled as to look it has been created out of electricity. In my mind, however, it is a very cheesy effect and perhaps has not been designed as well as it could have been. This is also my opinion of the colour scheme of the poster. While the red and blue of Spidey's costume, and the various shades of blue found in the background and electric logo, are acceptable and to an extent effective, the use of bright green is unappealing to the eyes, and more than anything reminds me of the nineties show 'Goosebumps' and is too odd looking in relation to the rest of the cover.

The cover features a great deal more text than is usual for an EMPIRE Magazine cover, making it look rather cluttered and messy, further exacerbating the ugly state of affairs, but this is a success for the publisher as it means they can showcase a lot of information about what exactly is contained within the pages and so draw a much wider audience who individually would be interested in different films (and television shows as the cover points out). Five film titles appear in large, bold letters on either side of Spider-Man while two separate boxes beneath single out the sci-fi films 'Gravity' and 'All You Need Is Kill' with an image each and a short line that mentions their star and a use of alliteration to explain their role in the film, for instance 'Bullock does Speed in Space' which references lead actress Sandra Bullock's previous acting role and a (very weak, I must add) comparison between the film's two plots. 'Gravity' is very much unlike 'Speed', despite what EMPIRE suggest. Underneath the EMPIRE logo is another short line, promising '15 Electric Comic Con Exclusives' using the word 'electric' as an obvious allusion to the world of the film, while the top banner is unassociated with Spider-Man and instead focuses on the twentieth anniversary of the release of 'Jurassic Park', as well as its impending 3D theatrical re-release with 'Access All Dinosaurs' a play on the phrase 'access all areas' implying that the reader will discover some secret, unknown information about the film and its creation, while bold, yet painfully typical, words and phrases like 'First Look!', 'On Set!' and 'Inside!' are used at the bottom left of the cover to provide further insight into the magazine's contents. Overall, the EMPIRE Magazine cover is functionally acceptable but aesthetically speaking, it dissapoints and all fronts and so design is something I am going to take considerable care with developing my magazine cover.

Poster Analysis: THE WOLVERINE (2013)

The teaser poster for 'The Wolverine' exceeds many others on a number of principles. Firstly, it stands out significantly from the rest by not being a photo-shopped rush job but an artistic design that demonstrates there has been a lot of thought and hard work put into the creation of it. It stands alone as a piece of art, in my eyes, and even adorned my bedroom wall for a period due to its sheer artistic beauty. The artist behind it has been inspired by Japanese culture and its art style, consistent with the setting of the film and therefore providing the audience with an idea with what they should expect. Secondly, it is very iconic. It does fall into the usual expectations of a poster by having the lead character in an overly stylized pose - in this case Wolverine's classic crossed claws (which have been successfully used in promotion of previous X-Men films) - however here this is used remarkably well. The classic pose represents the character's strength and prowess and will attract a wide variety of demographics. Interestingly, the size of his claws are slightly exaggerated, as in they are much longer than one would expect from prior films with the character, however this is probably to ensure they are recognisable.

Overall the image's simplicity and minimalism does it a number of favours by making it memorable. It presented in complete monochrome with only a splash of colour - the red of the release date's lettering and the Japanese symbol in the lower left of the poster - and Wolverine himself is engulfed in shadow. The details of his face are left much to the imagination of the viewer and this helps retain the sense of mystery that surrounds the character. The aforementioned Japanese symbol could perhaps be a clue of sorts to the film, but as someone who is not familiar with anything associated with the Japanese alphabet or the like, I do not understand its denotation, however it could just be something to further establish the Japanese style of the poster and setting of the film. At the bottom of the poster where one would expect cast and crew credits or at least a title, the designers have chosen to neglect either and simply present a date. This is sometimes seen on teaser posters as the studio want to maintain a sense of secrecy about the film instead of banking on the film's title, but with a character such as Wolverine who is instantly recognisable to most, whether they be young or old or even unaware of comic books, it is not important to show the film's title. In any case, the title is the name of the character so it could, perhaps, seem superfluous.

Magazine Analysis: MAN OF STEEL (2013)



I have never been a huge fan of Total Film. Not for their features or articles, but for the simple fact their covers aren't as appealing as that of EMPIRE Magazine. They often are cluttered affairs, which resort to cheap tactics to draw readers and feature some shoddy design work, which are all demonstrated beautifully by the 'Man of Steel' cover from earlier this year. What first strikes me in this cover is the image and the title of the film, as they should do, but in this case neither make me want to the see the film any more than I had done before. In fact they lower my expectations somewhat due to their poor presentation on the cover of this magazine. Firstly they have chosen a mediocre photo - while Superman is stood in a pose that is expected of such a character, there is something off about the photo that does not seem worthy of a big film such as this one. Lois Lane, for instance is stood awkwardly in front of Superman while her pose, with her arms hanging like planks from her torso, is even more so. Both characters' faces, looking away, suggest that they are facing a potential threat or danger, or even just so they could look cool, while the titular Man of Steel's is stood determined with his fist clenched and cape swept back. Some may think they look heroic. I think they look annoying. But I guess that's just me, so I won't go into any more depth with this particular issue.

The font chosen for the film is just a mess. Cheesy, bold lettering with light flares along it and gradient effect that could be achieved by a Year 7 in an IT class with a couple of minutes to spare simply looks cheesy and is reminiscent of the rather tacky cover for the standard edition of Lady Gaga's 2011 album 'Born This Way'. Both above and below the title they have chosen even more annoying taglines to support it. The words 'It's time for a change', seemingly and attempt at 'oh, lol :)' humour (if you don't get it, it is a reference to the character's new actor as well as radically changed suit) which just annoys me, as does the 'New Suit, New Superman, New Superhero Franchise', a use of repetition and the rule of three - but which just seems like overkill to me.

The cover promises 'Complete & Exclusive Access' giving potential buyers a reason to choose this magazine over others (well other...there are really only two major film-based publications in the UK), while the publishers clearly saw the draw of 'Man of Steel' wasn't sufficient so promote this edition as 'The Heroes and Villains Issue' - with apparently one hundred of said characters featured inside the pages of the magazine, a selection of images of them displayed in their own special, little boxes at the top of the cover. In the bottom left is advertised 'An On-Set X-clusive' (clever!) - 'The Wolverine' which is followed by what I can only think of as the most moronic tagline ever in the history of film publications, 'Fight, Fight, Fight!'...I guess it gets the point across. On the opposite side of the cover is littered a number of other little hints at what's inside, for instance 'Ryan Gosling: Bad Boy', 'Bradley Cooper: Good Guy'...we're getting there, so far so good...here we go, 'Kevin Bacon: Grilled'.

I'll admit I smiled. In excruciating embarrassment for the human race.

NOTE: I am not usually this nit-picky. Except it is very late, I am very tired, and I wanted something I could rip into like a rabid dog with a chew toy. I apologise.

Poster Analysis: MAN OF STEEL (2013)

 

This poster for "Man of Steel" instantly conveys its genre as being that of a superhero film, by depicting and focusing solely on the title character in flight, while dressed in his iconic red and blue costume with right fist clenched. The designers have chosen to show the film's lead actor, Henry Cavill, in a relatively close up angle, however there is no emphasis on his name, suggesting that his appearance in the film is not a unique selling point for audiences, due to his relative obscurity. Even director Zack Snyder's name only appears in small lettering above the cast list, and Christopher Nolan's role (albeit small) as producer of the film is not used to promote the film in this poster, showing the movie studio is relying on emphasising the recognisability of the character, rather than the talent behind the film, to promote it.

With the exception of Superman's striking blue and red outfit (with the red again the colour of the emblem behind the film's logo), the poster is devoid of much colour, and takes on a rather monochrome, with tints of blue, appearance. This style, a somewhat recent convention of movie posters, is often used to suggest a dark or cold feeling, fitting with the more 'realistic' approach of this reboot of the franchise as well as the title's use of the word 'steel'. Despite the obvious components that are present in film posters, such as the logo (in bold silver lettering), cast and crew credits, release dates and studio logos, the poster is unconventional when compared to posters of other big releases, as it chooses to focus on only one of the film's characters and depicts them in motion (with motion blur and bright blue lens flare applied) resulting in the image looking somewhat blurred. In my opinion, I am not a fan of this approach as I find it makes the poster look aesthetically unappealing, however I recognise the designer's intention was to show Superman flying at a great speed. Overall, however, the poster should appeal to its target audience successfully as both the image of Henry Cavill as the titular Man of Steel and the movie's logo (accompanied by the instantly recognisable Superman emblem) should provide enough brand recognition and excitement to attract audiences.

This is another one of the film's posters, which again depicts the Man of Steel using his most famous power of flight. This time however there is huge emphasis on the Superman emblem rather than the character or the actor himself, who is shown as very small in the overall poster. The emblem even appears twice, first taking up most space of the poster, but also appearing at the bottom, in small, behind the letters of the film's logo, somewhat redundant. Again, the designers have chosen not to use the lead actors or the director as the major selling point, appearing only at the bottom among the rest of the cast and crew, but rely on Superman's fame in popular culture to sell tickets.