The Best (and Worst) Movie Posters of 2012

While I wouldn't be that quick to declare 2012 a banner year for movie posters or even movies in general, what was good happened to be excellent. And as usual, there tends to be a direct correlation between a film's quality and the print advertising behind it. It can hardly be called a coincidence that some of the year's best films resulted in the strongest posters and vice versa, proving that when a studio chooses to get behind a movie or not, their commitment (or lack thereof) is almost always reflected in the print advertising. As a general rule, simple, clean, but visually striking designs always seem to fare best. Give them enough to get them interested, but not too much. So, with that in mind, let's get to it.

The Best...

10. Wreck-It Ralph

It would seem an 8-bit image would be the only way to go in teasing a movie about a videogame character but that still doesn't make it any less effective. This was the initial teaser for Wreck-It Ralph and no others seem necessary. It gets the point across loud and clear, and even if you had no idea what the movie is, an angry 80's retro gaming face is just about the best way to get kids (and probably some young adults) interested. It also doesn't hurt that it just looks cool.

9. Casa De Mi Padre

It seems like ages since Will Ferrell's starred in a truly hilarious film and I have no idea if this is one or not, but the one-sheet stands as a great example of why an artist's (in this case the great Akiko Stehrenberger) brush always trumps photoshop. Some probably can't stand that folded, retro worn look so many posters are adapting these days, but I'm not one of them. It definitely fits here. Trying to make this look like a Spanish epic or Spaghetti Western poster was unquestionably the right move. And it actually kind of succeeds in making me want to see this, which is no small feat. 

8. Django Unchained

We could have a whole discussion about how this minimalistic Saul Bass-inspired design is being done to death, but the reason it's being done to death is because it works. The bright red, the chain and two silouettes gets the job done. It helps that you have a film that basically sells itself by just the name of the director attached. A messy, cluttered cast poster would have been a huge mistake and the advertising department deserves credit for realizing it. You'd expect to see this hanging on someone's wall rather than in a movie theater, which is the hallmark of a great design.


7. Moonrise Kingdom

Could this one-sheet have possibly captured the visual scheme of Moonrise Kingdom (or basically any film written or directed by Wes Anderson) any better? Yeah sure I know it's really wordy but that cursive font just adds to the storybook look and feel. This could easily BE the cover of any of those books Suzy brought on her getaway with Sam.

 
6. V/H/S

It's always fun when a poster can say two things with a single image and still have it look good in the process. Glancing at it once isn't enough as you almost have to do a double take to see the skull. Or maybe you saw the skull first before realizing they were tapes. Either way, considering V/H/S/ is a low budget, found-footage anthology horror film, I'd say this sells the movie as well as possible.


5. Zero Dark Thirty

Talk about risky. This might be the first instance of a movie's poster redacting its title, but it's hard to deny the creative experiment wasn't a success in generating interest and mystery, not to mention tying into the actual film. It is a teaser but that there isn't a single star shown or director mentioned when they had plenty to brag about is an unusual show of restraint in this era of over-the-top marketing. Only the web site is completely visible and I'm willing to bet traffic's been busy.  


4. Looper (American and French Versions)

My most anticipated film of the year, which I'm still waiting on pins and needles to finally see, had two of the year's best one-sheets. While I slightly prefer the Drew Struzan-inspired French version both are equally impressive and artistic in their own way, with one emphasizing the time travel duality theme with mirror images of JGL and Willis, while the other is all about the action.

3. Killing Them Softly

It may have had the worst title of the year and bombed hard at the box office, but at least Killing Them Softly produced some great posters (also see below). This one's the best. It may not tell you anything other than it'll be be a murderous splatterfest but that suffices when the visual scheme is this arresting. Great mix of colors and you have to respect any poster designer with the guts to shoot Lady Liberty through the head.      


2. The Cabin in The Woods

It isn't often you see a modern movie poster incorporate or pay homage to a classic work of art, then somehow manage to do it in a way that's not only looks original and inspired, but directly relates to the film in question. I may have been less enthusiastic than most in my assessment of Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods but I couldn't possibly be more enthusiastic about this print by Phantom City Creative, a clever take-off of MC Escher's "Staircase." In both idea and execution it's almost as clever as the famous piece that inspired it. 


1. The Master (American, French and Turkish versions)

The toughest sell of the year resulted in what was easily 2012's most fascinating and brilliantly conceived set of posters. If I had to pick the American wine bottle teaser would be my favorite if only because, much like the film itself, we've never seen anything exactly like that before. It's just such a rich looking, "half-full, half- empty" image that tells us both everything and nothing about the movie at the same time, while effectively conveying the film's seafaring setting. Both The French and Turkish versions work as neat visual plays on the infamous Rorschach test Joaquin Phoenix's troubled Freddie Quell undergoes, with the evil eyes and mirror reflection of the typography highlighting the former. The latter features more dual imagery, accompanied by some incredible inkblotted artwork of the three stars. There was a black and white version (see below), but for some reason the color print just works better and jumps out at you more. Arguably the year's finest film, The Master was way too challenging to cultivate more than a cult (no pun intended) following, and the best thing about these designs are how well they reflect that challenging sensibility, avoiding the temptation of selling this as something it wasn't.        

Runners-Up...

 

And The Worst...

Don't ever cross Alex Cross because he's Alex Cross and you shouldn't cross him. Get it? It's his name!

Look familar? You know a poster's in trouble when even two Amanda Seyfrieds can't save it.

Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise in Tom Cruise: Cruise Control.

You might remember Vince Vaughn from his starring roles on TV's Dawson's Creek and Fringe. Hey...wait.  If this atrocity of a poster is any indication, Joshua Jackson is probably be grateful he was credited as someone else. Likewise, Vaughn is probably grateful he wasn't pictured.

Is this busy or what? I never thought I'd feel nostalgic for a Schwarzenegger poster but now here's another area where the original's starting to look better and better. Great shot of Beckinsale though.

It's a shame because the alternate poster for this is kind of over-the-top cool in all the ways this isn't. With this much fire you'd think it was a sequel to Backdraft.

                                                                                        Taken 3 starring Nicolas Cage

For such a high-profile release the entire series of Hunger Games posters sure were lazy and underwhelming. But those ridiculous hanging portraits put this one over the top.  

Well, at least it's over. We'll never have to look at another one of these again.

No one would argue John Goodman is the man and deserves to be on a great character poster, especially considering the film itself is fantastic. But boy is this silly looking. I can only imagine what people who haven't seen Argo think of it.

The Avengers poster looks exactly like you'd expect The Avengers poster to look like. I was hoping they wouldn't do that. A photoshopped disaster that unfortunately does get the job done in selling the movie. But it deserved better.

I have a theory that no movie characters own electric toothbrushes. This needlessly airbrushed image of Leslie Mann apparently doesn't contradict that. The less said about Paul Rudd on the toilet with an iPad the better.

Please accept this invitation to join Dennis Quaid for a game of golf. Or tennis. Or polo. Or whatever country club type sport he plans on partaking in this afternoon. For all that's wrong with this boxy Brady Bunch style poster, it says a lot that I still get the biggest laugh out of that image of Quaid.

The Cabin in the Woods

Director: Drew Goddard
Starring: Kristen Connelly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Brian White, Amy Acker
Running Time: 95 min.
Rating: R

★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

Somehow, someway, I was able to avoid all spoilers before seeing the supposedly genre bending horror curiosity The Cabin in the Woods, which was released to some surprising critical acclaim a few months ago. Now after actually viewing it, I'm forced to ask: "Spoil what?" Granted the plot does take a major meta plot u-turn in the last half hour, but it's mostly a conventional horror movie wrapped around a gimmick that at times seems forced and self-congratulatory. Produced and co-written by Joss Whedon and directed by his former Buffy collaborator Drew Goddard, this isn't a game-changer. It doesn't subvert the genre. If anything, it's too ambitious for its own good, going to great lengths to deliver a supposedly high-concept horror entry that thinks it has a lot to say when it's just really kind of a mess. No worries about spoilers here since I couldn't explain the direction this goes in if I tried, and like the film, it would feel like a lot of work for little pay off. It's hard to actually blame audiences for staying away as its one thing to release a fun, dumb slasher but quite another to pretend it's a deep, existential commentary on how we watch horror movies. But at least commend the filmmakers for attempting something different and ambitious, even if the final result is the same as usual, with just a little sci-fi thrown in for flavor.

When college students Dana (Kristen Connolly), Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Holden (Jesse Williams) and Marty (Fran Kranz) decide to take a weekend vacation at Curt's cousin's remote cabin somewhere in the woods, the trip starts going terribly wrong. All four characters can be given one word horror descriptors such as Virgin, Jock, Slut, Brain and Stoner, although the film's biggest accomplishment is in making those stereotypes serve a purpose and actually mean something to the narrative. Well, kind of. It isn't long after they arrive that they see and hear strange things, a family of redneck zombies are summoned from the grave and we have at least what appears to be at first your run-of-the-mill slasher. And for the most part, it is. But there's a twist. We find out early that these five have actually been placed in some kind of controlled  situation run by Gary Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Steve Hadley (Bradley Whitford), trained technicians who are not only manipulating this horror environment from the control room, but influencing the kids' actions to achieve a desired outcome for their unseen boss. While Gary and Steve bet on the results and celebrate gory deaths, the film cuts back and forth between the control room and cabin as the five fight to survive and the purpose of the operation begins to reveal itself.

It's an interesting decision to reveal early on that all these would be victims are actually subjects being filmed in some kind of twisted horror Truman Show, leaving the big revelation in the how and the why. What's most disappointing about this approach isn't the actual idea but how these technicians overseeing the action aren't depicted as even the slightest bit creative, trotting out the same horror tropes we've been watching on screen for the past twenty years. Sure, they're laughing along with us, but how does that make the actual execution of it any less tired?  Luckily, Jenkins and Whitford are a riot in their roles and their jokes help carry a crazy, convoluted premise that turns out to be more trouble than its worth. The last 40 minutes you're either on board with or you're not, as the only thing that is predictable is that these kids won't go down without a fight and the masterminds behind the project will have to dramatically change course to get the job done. I not only found the big revelation at the end (featuring a cameo by a big name actress) silly, but a dealbreaker considering Whedon and Goddard painted themselves into a corner by having the whole story rest on it. None of the performances are anything to write home about, though that hardly matters given how little is asked of them. Besides Jenkins and Whitford, only Fran Kranz makes a significant impression as stoner Marty, gobbling up the film's best one-liners. A pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth shows few signs he would be that strong screen presence down the road, while Kristen Connolly is bland enough as the protagonist that I actually had problems rooting for her.

Whenever you see Joss Whedon's name attached to a project it's only natural for fans to expect greatness. Not being overly familiar with his other work, I wasn't. And yet this still feels like a big let down. It's exciting whenever the horror genre goes in a new direction, but this only feels like a slight deviation. At the end of the day, it doesn't differ much from the usual slashers we're bombarded with and at points, it's even a little worse. Just because a movie is self-referential doesn't make it groundbreaking. A similar premise involving a mysterious project was well presented a few years ago in The Box and everyone inexplicably seemed to think it was the worst thing they've ever seen. But that was hard sci-fi with ideas. The Cabin in the Woods feels more like an inside joke for horror fans. Despite being nonsensical, there's no denying it has its moments and is skillfully directed, but the generic script fails its audience by promising a fresh spin that never comes.