Monday, May 09, 2011

New Poster for 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon'


This is okay. Brighter than the first poster. Hotter, more dynamic, better colors. No heart, though. No sense of character or story. Just blazing guns and machinery -- which we already know about. It's understood there will be sparks and guns. One sheets need to convey more than what's expected, what's already known because it took place in previous movies in the franchise.

Also, doesn't look photo real. Has more of a graphic look, like it's cut from a website or a video game. Especially this part:


That looks like it was drawn with colored pencils. Almost has a pastel feel. Very comic bookish or like what you'd expect in a graphic novel. Might as well be an oil painting.

This is even worse:


The eyes don't make solid contact -- hard to see. And, like that really looks like shattered glass -- looks like a drawing of shattered glass.

And, what's with the scratch(es) across the face/forehead? Those are drawn to produce an actiony feel -- to give it visual stress. If they're supposed to be marks on the character's face -- doesn't look real -- scratches in metal don't look like that. If they're supposed to be objects flying through the air leaving blurred trails -- they're not parallel, doesn't work. It looks like what it is -- hand drawn scratches in the final image -- added quick, sloppily, maybe right before quitting time on a Friday.


The bokeh effect isn't right -- looks more defocused in post (which it was, but it's not supposed to look like it was. Very cheap).

The flying splintered objects between the foreground and background characters have been defocused to convey a sense of motion. They should have been blurred, not defocused.

Some of the sparks are elongated left to right, imparting a sense of (some) motion, but the darker fragments look more defocused and have little if any elongation. They look fake.

So, when you look at the poster, somewhere, on some level, you sense the fragments are out of focus while the objects both nearer and farther are in sharp focus, which is impossible. This makes the poster seem weird on a subconscious level, takes you out of the moment, kills the energy.

All the elements (in the upper right corner) are pencil sketches. So damn cheap looking.

That said, much better than the first effort, which was just lost:


But, that's not saying much considering how bad this (first) effort is. Totally photoshopped looking, lacks any core/point of focus, dull coloring, generic 'burning' scenery, background vehicles flying in corners have a 'thrown in' look -- to add a busy feel. Fire and smoke is very fake looking -- afterthoughts. The people don't look right. She's too tall or too short or something, hard to tell. He's lit from his right, she's not. It's just wrong.

All in all, given how much money is being spent on this product, the posters have been lazy. Someone needs to have a meeting, rattle some cages.

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