Poster Comparison: 'Piranha 3D'

A while back the Euro poster for 'Piranha 3D' (on the left) hit the web. Now, we get the amped-up US version on the right.

I like the Euro version better on almost all counts. There are a few toothy fish, and they are more hidden in the water -- at first you don't notice them and it's a fun jolt when you take a closer look. They are lurking and the effect is creepy and emotionally engaging. The American version is loaded with piranha, left to right and front to back, as if Marketing is afraid we might forget what the movie is about.

The title graphics in the Euro version are 70s retro-cool with a hand-crafted look. I like the 'old folded up paper poster found in the attic' look. The US font choice seems word-processor sterile and tacked-on -- the blood-red all-caps comin' atya look is beyond simple-minded and devoid of charm.

What's interesting is that, in the Euro version, the fish seem to be waiting for the woman to, oh I don't know, perhaps dip her hand in the water or go for a swim so they can have lunch. In the US version, the woman's hand is in fact in the water just waiting to be chewed on but the fish are swimming, mouths opened wide ready to chomp, toward the viewer, not her. What's up with that? Aren't we just innocent viewers? Aren't we supposed to be safe in the theater? Oh, I get it -- IT'S 3D!!! -- the fish may in fact swim out of the screen and land in the laps of hapless moviegoers to ruthlessly dine on their private bits. How titillating! Now, I'm scared.

In the Euro poster the woman is closer to center and more brightly lit by the sun suggesting human characters are more of a factor in the story. In the American poster the woman is pushed almost to the top of frame, is not as brightly lit, and is less color saturated. The piranha are, despite being underwater, more brightly lit and have higher contrast than the woman, which makes them far more important. The message in one is 'How will people deal with these horrible fish?', while the message in the other is 'Look at those scary monstrous fish with big sharp teeth!'.

Strangely though, the tag in the Euro poster is as clunky and literal as would be expected from the worst American one sheet: 'Sex, Sea, and...Blood'. However, it's safe to assume there's something lost in translation from the French text (why the text is in English at all I'm not sure). The American copy is, oddly enough, pretty clever: 'This Summer 3D Shows Its Teeth'. Not bad, though, I'll admit, I may be going a bit far to characterize this as 'pretty clever'. Perhaps I'm comparing it to some previous forgotten idiotic tagline and, as such, the text seems smarter that it really is.

Directed by Alexandre Aja, 'Piranha 3D' opens in the US August 20. Aja also directed 'High Tension' ('Haute Tension') which was a nicely done psych-thriller, so I'm holding out hope for a bit of classed-up suspense from 'Piranha 3D'.