Toy Story 3 Character posters

I guess both Disney and Warner Bros like money. Here is my poster review for Lee Unkrich's 'Toy Story 3'.

Toy Story 3 is one of the best endings to a trilogy, too bad they're making a fourth one. Though John Lasseter is returning to direct I still think that they should have just ended the franchise with this one. So far only Tom Hanks and Tim Allen have signed on to return. Though John Lasseter has high approval for the story that the Pixar team have made up, saying that they "don't want to do anything with [these characters] unless it lives up to or surpasses what's gone before." As I said before this is a great ending to a trilogy. It is also a really good trilogy. Other trilogies I can think of that are similar in that all 3 are good are: 'Star Wars', 'The Dark Knight', The Cornetto Trilogy, 'Indiana Jones', 'Bourne', 'Back To The Future' and 'Lord Of The Rings'. It's been a while since I actually watched 'Toy Story 3' so I'm not going to comment much on it. Tom Hanks' career is much better than his co-star Tim Allen's. Hanks has won 2 Oscars and nominated for 3 more. Tim Allen on the other hand has not been nominated for any Oscars but has been nominated several times and won once at the Golden Globes for 'Home Improvement'. Outside of that and 'Toy Story' he really hasn't had much success.

I rather like what they did with the characters and the 3s, especially with it replacing Mr Potato Head's nose. The poster stuff: A third of the title, studios and release date. Missing stuff: 2 thirds of the title, 3D and tagline.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

The Double Posters

In 'The Double' Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg and Zuckerberg Mark. This is my poster review for Richard Ayoade's 'The Double'.

I'm not sure if you can tell or not but I don't really like Jesse Eisenberg as an actor, but that doesn't mean I don't like the films he's in. I just think that he doesn't have any range and is always the same character, Mark Zuckerberg because that's his most well known one. Even pre-'Social Network' he played the same character. Before I watched this I thought that he might not be the same character half the time but I was proven wrong, he was two variations on the same  character. The other performances were perfectly fine. Also Richard Ayoade's directing style was rather interesting. It was very artistic and stylized but it was also quite ambiguous, and not just with an ambiguous ending but almost everything is ambiguous. I can't comment on what he did with 'Submarine' because I've not seen it. I enjoy watching The IT Crowd  and think that Richard Ayoade was very good as Maurice Moss, so I found him directing interesting. And his interviews also reflect the sort of style of his humour and style. Back to Eisenberg. Although I don't like him as an actor I own 3 of his movies on Blu-Ray and have seen 2 others. Despite not liking him I do think he might do well as Lex Luthor in BvS, because I wouldn't mind Lex Luthor being portrayed as a young entrepreneur in a Mark Zuckerberg like way.

Anyway the posters are all good. They contain: title, actors, director, reviews and studios.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

Kingsman: The Secret Service Character Posters

"Do you like spy movies, Mr DeVere?" I do like them...and don't call me Mr DeVere. Here is my poster review for Matthew Vaughn's 'Kingsman: The Secret Service'.

That was meant to be an Airplane reference by the way. I really enjoyed watching 'Kingsman', partly because it knows exactly what it is: a fun spy movie that has a big over the top plot filled with comedic moments and violent fight scenes. Those fight scenes were so violent that 20th Century Fox submitted it for pre-cuts from the BBFC to make sure if it would get the 15 rating they wanted. Though I do like 'Kingsman' I do prefer Matthew Vaughn's other Mark Millar graphic novel adaption 'Kick-Ass' as I think it has better commentary on the superhero genre than 'Kingsman' does the spy genre. I don't like the sequel though as I don't think it's that entertaining and the story goes too far away from the graphic novel's. Despite that Matthew Vaughn said that he would want to make a third one and a Hit Girl and Big Daddy prequel. I'm not quite sure what they'd do casting wise for Hit Girl as Chloe Grace Moretz is now too old, but I'm sure Nicolas Cage could return. I do like Matthew Vaughn's directing style, though I've not seen 'Stardust' and 'Layer Cake', but I'm still interested in whatever he's doing next. Another thing he's good at is finding relatively unknown actors and casting them in lead roles and getting good performances from them. For example: Daniel Craig(Layer Cake), Charlie Cox(Stardust), Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloe Grace Moretz(Kick-Ass), Taron Egerton and Sophie Cookson(Kingsman). 

I'm kind of cheating with this and the next few as they're all art cards I've got from DVDs. This set of posters are all referencing the poster for 'For Your Eyes Only'.  I can't really list all the poster stuff though I do find it strange that they put down that it was from the director of X-Men: First Class and not Kick-Ass, as it is closer to tone and content than X-Men. Though I don't really understand why they gave JB the pug a poster and not someone like Michael Caine or Mark Strong.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Harry/Voldemort Poster

It all ends here unless Warner Bros and JK Rowling decide that they need more money. Here is my poster review for David Yates' 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2'.

Yes that's right, the poster is changing, I got this at a screening in September(?) 2011 when Odeon brought it back for a weekend and gave away these special posters to anyone who saw it. This is the most successful Harry Potter film and is also the 7th biggest movie ever(for now anyway). Interestingly before 2015 it was 4th but then Fast & Furious 7, Avengers: Age Of Ultron and Jurassic World all overtook it. This is easily my second favourite Harry Potter film and is probably my favourite of 2011 that I saw in cinema(I didn't see Source Code in cinema which I also really like). Unlike Mockingjay I thought this deserved to be split into 2 parts as so much happens in the book that they would find hard to fit into one 2 1/2 hour film. This also influenced the Escape From Gringotts ride at Universal Studios which opened last year. It is a smart move by Warner Bros to make more money by making this offer to see their film again a few months after you first did. I like how it shows Harry and Voldemort, the two enemies who you know are going to have a fight scen because "either must die at the hands of the other". Now for the poster features, which I am going to do differently this time because this wasn't used in cinemas or bus stops to advertise it: Title, studios and technically advertises the 3D because of how it is designed. The lack of release date and social media is fine and I guess director and actor credits missing are fine too.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Poster

It's always the "chosen one", what about someone who has seen the chosen one in passing and is observing all that's going on?.Here is my poster review for David Yates' 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'.

Harry Potter, the second most popular franchise money wise according to Wikipedia. I own all the Harry Potter DVDs and I have read all the books. My favourite for both is Prisoner of Azkaban and my least favourite film is Order of the Phoenix because they took the longest book and made it the second shortest film(after DH:P2), and book is...actually I don't really have a least favourite book. This is generally the year where not much happens, until the end anyway. What makes this enjoyable is that it focuses on the characters and their interactions together. It still progresses the whole story though by showing Tom Riddle's past at Hogwarts, partially through the new potions teacher Professor Slughorn(Jim Broadbent) who also taught Riddle at Hogwarts. My version of the poster is different as it is the UK version. It is also more horizontal than vertical but I couldn't find that one. It shows the sort of bleak lighting that's been present since the 3rd one. I quite like how it's got half of Harry's face in the shadow and the reflection of Dumbledore in Harry's glasses, which helps to imply that part of the film is their interactions. Onto the features of the poster: title(kind of anyway), tagline, release date and companies. Unless it's in the small print there's no director or actor credits one it. It is also not advertising that it's the first Harry Potter in IMAX 3D, but not regular 3D for a strange reason, despite 2009 being the year for the return of 3D.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

Battleship Poster

How do you adapt a slow strategy based board game? Add aliens of course! Here is my poster review for Peter Berg's 'Battleship'.

2012 was meant to be a big year for Taylor Kitsch. The 'Friday Night Lights' was the main character in two big budget movies: this and 'John Carter', and was also in an Oliver Stone film. Before 2012 he had fairly small roles in films and he was Gambit in the first Wolverine movie, though that role has now been taken by Channing Tatum. After 2012 Taylor Kitsch was only slightly further ahead in his career, thanks to none of the 3 doing well at the cinema or with critics. It is essentially Tansformers 3.5 but without the brand, though my poster has Hasbro and the Transformers names at the top. I like it as it shows Taylor Kitsch, almost silhouetted, standing on a naval ship facing one of the big alien ships, which is not silhouetted. The top of the poster also has three missile tubes pointing at the alien ship. I have checked and that shot may actually be possible on a battleship which helps the poster. Time for the poster features: title, tagline, release date(though mine says coming soon), social media and studios. Missing are the names of actors and the director, there was character posters with Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Rhianna, Brooklyn Decker, Tadanobu Asano and Liam Neeson, whose role was way too small.

This is a fun action sci-fi movie that's not meant to be the next Blade Runner. And sorry for the weird line breaks towards the end, I don't know what happened.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

Selma Main UK poster

Time to catch up, here is my poster review for Ava DuVernay's 'Selma'.

This is probably one of my favourite films of 2015 so far. All the praises at the top of the poster are well deserved in my opinion. David Oyelowo's performance as Martin Luther King was especially good and was perfectly cast. This isn't a flaw but quite a few of the main actors are brittish actors playing iconic people in American history. David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson(LBJ), Carmen Ejogo(Coretta Scott King) and Tim Roth(George Wallace). In fact the only American on the poster is Oprah Winfrey. Funnily David Oyelowo, Oprah Winfrey and Cuba Gooding Jr all had roles in 2013's 'The Butler', which was partially set around the American civil rights movement. Now to talk about the poster. I think that by seeing David Oyelowo standing solo in the foreground against all the state troopers in the background is brilliant and helps to show the struggle that black Americans had during the civil rights movement. The poster features it contains are: title, actors, studios, release date, critics reviews and director in small print.

Now onto the film. As I have already said this is one of my favourites of this year. The performances are all great and DuVernay has a great visual style and perfectly directs almost action suspense and talking scenes. And 'Glory' is a good song as well. Though I am just as surprised that David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay weren't nominated for best actor and director respectively as 'The Lego Movie' not being nominated for best animated picture.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 Katniss Back Facing Poster

Sorry for the lateness but here is my poster review for Francis Lawrence's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1.

This is my least favourite of the Hunger Games movies, and is based on my least favourite of the books. All that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy it. My favourite film and book is definitely Catching Fire but I'm not going to go into details as this blog is not about books, it's about posters. The marketing team, for whatever reason, showed a lot of the rest of the cast early on in the advertising campaign, despite people watching them for Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss. To see what I'm talking about, type 'mockingjay part 1 character poster' into Google Images and you'll see secondary, and characters with even smaller roles, characters facing forward and to the side, still with their faces visible, but Katniss is facing backwards(at least until you get about 30 images in. And there's only really one other poster with Katniss in, making two which is the same amount of posters which President Snow in(who is in it for much less). Even 'Foggy Nelson' from 'Daredevil'(this was before he was in 'Daredevil' though) has his own poster and he had a very small role. They also have posters which have random citizens from some of the Districts(which I think is actually rather smart as it shows the normal people caught in this revolution). Onto the poster stuff: release date, tagline, not in 3D. What it's missing: the main actors names, the title(you don't want people saying "I can't wait to see November 21!").

Despite liking this entry into the franchise  the least I am still looking forward to Part 2 which comes out this November. It contains great performances(one of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's last) and special effects.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

So this was a nice surprise...

 So 10 months before the film is released, Empire magazine gives away a double sided poster for Zack Snyder's 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'. The last few times I got posters from Empire it was either the month of or the month before release. So, there was no IMAX screenings for the trailer in the UK(not sure about USA), but I still get the "exclusive" posters anyway. They are quite cool though. This will be the first time when more than one DC superhero appears in the same official live action feature film('The Lego Movie' is animated so it doesn't count) and they are making it happen in a big way by promising a fight between two of the most popular superheroes: Batman and Superman.

 I do like how in the posters Batman's eyes are covered by the Superman logo and vice versa. It also looks as if the paper has been ripped a few times to show the logos of a past poster. And is it just me or is Superman grinning, although the trailer does make it seem like the world sees him as a villain, I don't think he will actually be portrayed as evil. As he says in 'Man Of Steel' that the S "means hope", so why would he go against that and destroy more iconic fictional cities.

So the advertising campaign started in May, despite coming out in MARCH 2016! It's just as bad as the Star Wars Episode VII having the first trailer come out in November 2014 when it doesn't come out until December this year. THAT'S THIRTEEN MONTHS! Though I really can't complain about seeing footage of either films. Alright, there's all the normal poster stuff: release date(kind of), 3D-ness, studios and social media stuff.

Of course I haven't seen the film but I do like how the trailer has more colour, in a 'Watchmen' style, than 'MoS'(look up if Man Of Steel was in colour on Youtube if you'd like to see more).
EDIT: I have since rewatched 'Man Of Steel and there is more colour than the video says but is still toned down.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

Oz The Great And Powerful Main Character Poster

We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful...Oh wait wrong property. Here's my poster review for Sam Raimi's 'Oz The Great And Powerful'

It's time to talk about Sam Raimi's 'Oz The Great And Powerful'(pretty sure it's missing a colon), the least successful money wise, despite making $493,000,000, but the 2nd best received of Disney's live action fairy-tales. It also happens to be my favourite, though I haven't seen Kenneth Branagh's 'Cinderella'. As you can see the poster has all the main characters bar Finley(Zach Braff) and China Girl(Joey King). It contains all the normal poster stuff: the name, release date, 3D-ness, IMAX screenings, small print containing credits and the studio(which because it's Disney it's in two places). Though I'm a bit surprised that the cast isn't listed at the top given the celebrity of James Franco, and that  Sam Raimi's name is only at the bottom given that he directed one of the most popular superhero trilogies ever and that 'Spider-Man 2' is one of the best superhero films ever made. Though it does show off some of the great looking, CGI landscape of Oz.

I've stated that I liked the film but it did get mixed reviews from critics and is one of  Sam Raimi's few less well received films, probably because of comparisons to the 1939 original, so it's not for everyone. And yes, there is a Bruce Campbell cameo.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

Lone Ranger Tonto Poster

Hi-yo, Silver! It's the poster review for Gore Verbinski's 'The Lone Ranger'.

So, the first poster to be of a financial and critical flop, and I will say that I like it. Gore Verbinski re-teams with Johnny Depp in what Disney hoped would be a new 'Pirates Of The Caribbean', but turned into 2013's 'John Carter'(which I prefer to this). People seem to be getting tired of Johnny Depp, with this, 'The Rum Diary', 'Transcendence' and 'Mortdecai' all not doing great, but maybe 'Black Mass' will change that. As for 'Into The Woods' he was hardly advertised and really had a small role. This role was just written off as another 'Jack Sparrow' character, and there was controversy with a white actor being cast as a Native American character. Last year there was also controversy surrounding Ridley Scott's 'Exodus', where white actors were cast as Egyptians. Personally, I only mind if it's a character known to be a certain race or is a cultural icon. Apart from that, I really don't care as long as they give a good performance. On the Tonto case, It would have been nice to see a Native American ancestor play him, but then they would have had to get a bigger name actor to play the 'Ranger' than Armie Hammer. He's still not big enough to carry a film but maybe this summer's 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E' will change that,

So I took this as an opportunity to talk about Johnny Depp's career and the film business so I'll get the poster out the way. It shows Gore Verbinski's gritty direction, a character and actor, release date, director's credits, release date and company credits. Though what is Johnny Depp looking at(like with a lot of posters).

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 'Electric Face-off' Poster

The next poster is this one for Marc Webb's 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2'.

This poster helped to establish the style of how the film is shot. The bright colours and the look that can be achieved through shooting on 35mm instead of the Red Epic digital cameras used to shoot the first, which could be seen as a strange choice considering the amount of CGI in it. Back to the poster, this is one of two main posters I saw for advertising along with the one that showed too much, I saw this on almost all bus stops. The poster is quite simple in establishing the main rivalry in the film, for the 1 hour mark to 10 minutes before the end. It also shows off the costume design of the protagonist and antagonist. Spider-Man's costume has changed since the first film, like the hands and the mask's eyes. This was probably the first clear look at Electro's costume, showing off the armor, weird plastict vent parts, lightning bolt on his arm, weird metal amp like things and the metal collar. If you look closely at the collar, you can see a small variation of the Oscorp logo, where there is a stick where the space should be. The electricity is also a good feature that shows off Electro's powers to those not familiar with him.It also features the basic poster features: name, 3D, studios and website/social media addresses.

This poster represents the second hour well, as Electro isn't properly Electro for the first hour, and, unlike the rest of the advertising campaign, doesn't show too much of the film.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

Life Of Pi-Richard Parker Main Poster

In my second blog i will be discussing this poster for Ang Lee's 'Life Of Pi'.

This poster has made a big impact of the marketing of Life Of Pi, as it is the box art for the DVD and is the film edition of the book cover. This is a bit of a generic style of poster, with a floating head in the main, and underneath the main character(s) looking into the distance at nothing particular(in this case they are looking at the seemingly endless Pacific Ocean). But the way the marketers have made this poster is well made. It is also better than their other attempts at posters, also mainly having floating heads. The presence of the tiger's well crafted cgi(if it is the same as the film) several months before the finished film came out. The tagline "Believe the unbelievable" is a great representation of both the film and the book, with there being some unbelievable moments and the story being unbelievable. It also refers to the question the film refers to at the end. The release date is at the bottom of mine but not the pictured one. Mine also says "In spectacular 3D", which is very true as Life Of Pie had one of the best uses of 3D I have ever seen, whereas on this poster it simply says "In 3D", which is an understatement in my opinion.

Since I have already essentially compared the poster to the film; I will now compare the film to the book. I have seen the film and read the book several times each, and I think that they're both brilliant. There are some changes where the film makers toned down the violence, shortened the beginning and took out a plot point in the book which helps you question things. They toned down the violence so that they could get a lower rating to attract a wider audience, yet this still made plenty of complaints headed towards the BBFC. In the book, there are more deaths of animals and it is much more graphic. The shortening of the beginning was most likely for two reasons:
1.It would have made the movie quite long.
2.People would most likely have watched the movie to see Pi's struggle at sea.
I will not spoil the missing plot point in case you haven't read the book, but I understand why they left it out. The plot point is important to the ending, but in my opinion is an un-filmable sequence as it would take away some of the intrigue of the sequence.

The contents of the poster translate well to the film, including Ang Lee's brilliant direction which he won his second Oscar. I also think that it is a well made poster for a generic layout style.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.

The Wolverine Ink Poster

In my first blog, I will be discussing the teaser poster for James Mangold's 'The Wolverine'.

This, in my opinion is a really good artistic poster. It is designed in a classic Japanese brushed ink style and is of Hugh Jackman's titular mutant. Despite the lack of a title on the poster, if you are familiar with the character of Wolverine(or if you know his signature claws and hair) you would be able to tell it is a new X-Men movie. Thanks to the art style, you can also tell that it is either set in Japan or borrows heavily from Japanese culture. Though it does feature the release date, it misses out two other details most posters have:
1.The studio that's distributing it.
2.The fact that it's in 3D.
Usually if a film is in 3D it is advertised on almost every piece of advertising, whether it be on posters, trailers or TV adverts. This way people will know it's in 3D and most likely see it in that format, generating more money for the studios.Maybe 20th Century Fox's logo isn't on to say that it is the director's vision under a few guidelines(like make sure we get the desired rating from the censors), or the marketing team thought it would take away from the artistic style of the poster. All we can do is speculate.

On to the film; how does it compare to the poster? The film is not stylishly shot but it borrows from Japanese culture. To be more exact:samurais. There are several sword fights in the movie(or to be more exact: sword vs claw fights), and the fighters use what appears to be traditional swords. There is also the comic book villain Silver Samurai featured, who in the comics is a mutant trained as a medieval samurai, but in the movie is changed to a man inside a robot with a big sword.

Although some aspects of the poster do not carry over to the film, apart from the absent title which does not appear until the credits, the teaser poster is designed well and is intriguing.

Thanks for reading and I would like to add that I own this and any future posters I will review.