...is one crazy-ass movie! Some cool stuff in it, creature effects, too.

god

Look at the Verhoven image. We'd all have a cultural association with that movie for the rest of time, if they had made that 'The Image' of the movie. All of us, even if we never saw it, would recall such a weird, iconic image.

Consider the following 'old-style; new-style' poster list. How clearly and quickly does an association form for you?

What does the poster art for Back to the Future look like?

What does the poster art for The Avengers look like...?

What does the poster art for The Shawshank Redemption look like?

What does the poster art for Avatar look like...?

What does the poster art for Jurassic Park look like?

What does the poster art for Finding Dory look like...?

Bleh.

(Honestly, the closest recent example I've got for an old-school 'pick an image and own it' style is Deadpool 2.)

(To Ragnarok's credit, they did pick a very specific aesthetic unlike any other movie art, so that's a half-point.)

It's not even how bad the posters are for new movies — and oh they are — it's that there are like seventy different images associated with new movies. Character one-sheets! Hooray! No two bus stops will look alike!

It's like they've industrially decided never to make an accumulating impression — much less a lasting one.

(Really, it's just that the industry isn't doing the same thing anymore. Different-everything. But this is the result.)

Sounds right — and every movie can be spoiled by its poster now, because every movie is a potential saga now.

I like the ideas we're bouncing off each other here.

EDIT: There's actually probably a lot of strange knock-on effects to posters as a result of the industrial newthink.

For instance, not only that they're [inappropriately] cagey about 'spoilers' in their posters because none of their big movies are presumed to be a nonquel anymore — 'nonquel'; copyright j'boy, 2018 — but also for the exact opposite reason: because no movie is presumed to be a nonquel anymore, they want separate ad campaigns for all of the aspects of the movie they might later spin off. All the characters, all the voices, all the settings, etc..

Hm.

This will be a candidate for 'best things you've said all month.' Savor it.

Furthermore, if I may mangle your quote by replacing your 'do-nothing' with my 'tell-nothing':

Fuck yeah dawg.

Maybe we'll split credit 70/30 for that one. The rest is all you.

[EDIT: Nope, turns out I fixed your inadvertent self-servingness by serving myself a big 'ol potion of same. ]

Anyway.

I really wanna keep playing with these ideas, but I need to get back to work — that said, this would make for a fun standalone Skype-cast, if you feel like recording such a thing. I feel like this is a topic which lends itself to throwing blanket statements at each other and seeing what sticks.

(Check your PMs.)

Mmf. I dig it.

They only sell em at the venue, and once they're gone they're gone, but they might still have some left over! If you'd not be averse to using a middleperson I can check to see if they still have any when I'm there tomorrow and pick one up for you if so.

A composer owing me a life-debt could come in handy. I'll let you know if I get lucky!

Matt Zoller Seitz shared this on Twitter along with the note, "I’ve gotten to the point where if I see a poster that doesn’t have any actors on it, just a graphic, it makes me want to see the movie, because the filmmaker has to be an absolutely relentless person to get the money people to approve a poster like that."

SPOILER Show

Some how this post had -1 likes? Is that real?