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[BEST & WORST '11] The Best Posters of the Year!

Movies
Posted by EvanDickson on January 01, 2012 @ 7:15am | 0 Comments
Category: Movies / Editorials

Posters, when done right, are an art form. Sure, they’re advertisements, but they’re also such a great artistic challenge. Representing the identity of a movie – and getting people in the door – with a single image? That’s tough.

Making it even tougher these days are mandates from studios to their marketing departments to emphasize their perception of the film’s commercial assets (stars, animals, Katherine Heigl sometimes) rather than the film itself.

Here’s a gaggle of posters that got it right this year. Some of them are for great films and some are the most dangerous breed of all – great posters for terrible films.

What a fantastic poster! I love the illustrations. It evokes a stellar sense of wonder, excitement and fright. It almost looks like an album cover for …and You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, which isn’t a bad thing.

This isn’t the official poster for the film (those are no slouches either) but I think it perfectly captures the vibe of Drive. And since vibe is so very important to the film itself, it doubles the apropo factor of this renegade one-sheet.

I didn’t care for this movie. Kevin Smith fans are a voracious (and increasingly insane) bunch of dedicated consumers who have found a way to deify someone who shamelessly exploits both their devotion and their wallets. Any time we mention Smith on the site we’re attacked from all sides for exposing our true feelings. Well here’s a true feeling you guys might enjoy – I like the Red State poster. It’s evocative, simple and effective. It almost makes the movie look like something I could recommend. Red State may not have been recognized at the Independent Spirit awards, something Kevin Smith pointed out with the utmost grace and maturity*. But Red State did make at lead one “best-of” list. This one right here.

*That’s a joke.

It’s hard for me to separate this one sheet from the film (which I loved) – but it does a great job of conveying the characters and the panic, action and excitement that await them without giving too much away.

They don’t make them like this anymore. Tasteful and timeless, this one-sheet makes Rubber look like it could have emerged at almost any point in cinema history over the last 60 years or so. I haven’t even seen the movie yet and I could hang this on my wall.

Again, a timeless poster for a film that itself is a bit of a throwback to the days of non-ironic thrills.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of this movie but this one-sheet almost makes me want to see it again (a done deal if I get to skip Werebear)! I love the almost Golan-Globus aspect of it all. It’s overstuffed, over the top and promises a blast of a film. Something any poster should be proud of achieving, whether or not you feel the final product fully lives up to it.

HATED this stupid effing movie. That being said, a provocative poster is a provocative poster. I’m just glad this one made it out of the art department before Tom Six thought better of things and decided he wanted to paint one himself.

Sometimes sight gags work! Although I’ve yet to see the film I have to admit this is a clever bit of marketing.