Posts Tagged ‘ID4’
What I’ve been watching – Alice and Gamer
… for over there. Of course since I brought it up I’ll remind you that Dan and I talked about ID4: Independence Day for the club and whilst it is long I think it’s pretty good still.
Sigmate Studio competition
Just also giving you the heads up that friend to QYDJ Sigmate Studio has a new competition going to win some prints or sketch books from Kirk Lindo. If you don’t remember I had a Hulk image featured as a prize for their first competition. So head on over and see …
Tags: Alice in Wonderland Gamer ID4 Teen Wolf Tim Burton What I've been watching
I was very tempted to do a April fool’s post but then I was reminded of the fact that as a general rule I dislike those kind of posts anyway.
So instead I’m doing a bit of a movie catch up on what I’ve watched over the last couple of weeks.
Alice in Wonderland
Saw this in 3D and actually really wondered if I would not have preferred seeing the 2D version as the 3D was pretty average in my opinion. I found it hard to focus on the 3D elements and it the feel to it that the 3D was digitally added after shooting which I believe is the case any way. The film itself was good, I’m a big Tim Burton fan so I generally enjoy his films anyway and I didn’t see the problem with this being an extension of the original story rather than a remake, I know a lot of people hated that aspect.
I did hate the stupid dance that the Mad Hatter performs at the end, it should have never been shown on-screen and should only have been referred to. It’s like the McGuffen in Pulp Fiction, we never see what’s inside the case because our imaginations work so much better than any ‘thing’ that could have been in there. With the Mad Hatter’s dance it was pretty dumb anyway but I doubt they could have done anything satisfying considering the early build up.
So if you hate Tim Burton films or you want to watch the original storyline of Alice in Wonderland best to avoid, but I did like it.
Gamer
Okay, I wanted to see this for a while and a couple of people on Twitter told me this was good. I don’t completely agree with them but then I don’t completely disagree either. It’s an interesting concept, it’s like The Running Man meets Death Race meets The Sims meets Modern Warfare 2 in a dark alley and they all decided to go out and have a drink together. Some of works really well and some of it is just boring or predictable. At no point did I think I was watching a big movie though, it has B grade running through its veins which isn’t really a bad thing but it also wasn’t a good thing either.
If this all sounds conflicting that’s because it is a conflicting movie! I like some of the concepts in it, I especially enjoyed the extrapolation of how depraved humanity can be, especially online.
I also watched Teen Wolf and Teen Wolf Too but that was for the Midnight Movie Club podcast so I’ll save my thoughts for over there. Of course since I brought it up I’ll remind you that Dan and I talked about ID4: Independence Day for the club and whilst it is long I think it’s pretty good still.
Sigmate Studio competition
Just also giving you the heads up that friend to QYDJ Sigmate Studio has a new competition going to win some prints or sketch books from Kirk Lindo. If you don’t remember I had a Hulk image featured as a prize for their first competition. So head on over and see if you can’t pick yourself up something neat!
I asked the question the other day on Twitter what everybody’s favourite movie posters of all time were and I got some fantastic answers, I also discovered some really inspirational poster designs.
So for the record:
My top five movie posters*
*subject to change
1. Batman / Ghostbusters
In fairness I am cheating a little with choice number one but it’s not because I’m just trying to sneak an extra poster into the list. I actually love these posters for the exact same reason and it would be downright crazy to have them take up two spots on the list.
The sheer iconic simplicity.
The original teaser poster for Ghostbusters was simply the Ghostbusters symbol, backwards interestingly enough, I’m told it is because the ‘no or anti’ symbol wasn’t widespread in use in the USA so the distributors didn’t realise that it was the wrong way around. In fairness I have my doubts over this being true. But the key thing here is that symbol makes you want to know more and but not giving more you make an audience want to find out who ya gonna call.
The Batman poster comes off the secrecy surrounding the Batman production, you could have easily had an action packed poster with explosions and Jokers and Batmobiles, but rather than give anything away we have the single most important element of the film, really of the whole character which is the bat symbol.
It is mind numbingly awesome and created a giant bat craze in 1989. Of course it was also designed to separate it from the campy feel of the 60s Batman as well and you are under no misconception, this is a new updated Batman!
2. Jaws
Screw that, I’m not going into the water.
A giant scary f$%@ing huge shark eating people in the ocean. Thank you, mission accomplished.
I like the whole concept of the poster, it captures the vulnerability of swimming in the ocean and not knowing what is underneath those waves. The shark is in no way in proportion, for this Jaws film at least but it still works.
I actually possibly like the follow up poster more but only because I think the idea of selling tickets to a picture because you were too scared to watch it from behind your hands over your eyes is a clever marketing idea plus I like the crispness of no black around the edges.
A quick note about the wonderful typeface used for the Jaws logo… umm, it’s wonderful.
3. Escape from New York
The Escape from New York poster is really put together well in a visual sense, being slanted, the light on our heroes running, the chase and the fact that the city itself overwhelms the smaller figures. It has great imagery, even though you never see the Statue of Liberty’s head strewn across a city street in the actual film here it just evokes the imagery of where New York is at the time of this film, it is kind of cool that years later they would pay homage to this poster in the film Cloverfield by actually depicting the unseen scene.
The title also jumps out of the poster which you obviously want, I think I like the poster more the more I examine it!
4. Independence Day
You can say what you want about the film, I know a lot of people give it grief and complain about all of its problems but even these people have to admit it had one of the best advertising campaigns for a movie ever.
Even in Toowoomba where I was living at the time it was released they had custom TV ads proclaiming that we should take a look at Toowoomba cause it could be our last.
I just love the snappy “Earth, take a good look, could be your last” tag-line with a picture of the Earth and the beginning of the giant mothership at the top of the poster as it gives that oppressive overwhelming feeling.
It again does what a really good poster is supposed to do and sets the tone for the film, ID4 is not a serious film, it’s a ride.
I thought I might just mention that I like most of the other ID4 posters as well that all serve to show how powerful the aliens are… if only they had installed Nortons.
5. Darkman
A lot of people mistakenly think that Darkman is based on a comic book character when in fact it isn’t. Darkman was an original character developed for the movie. The film captures the comic book and pulp feel so well and this poster is just a great comic book cover of the character, a perfect hero shot of a not so perfect hero (oh did you see that little spot of writing, that was gold, nominate me for something right now!).
I love the pose and it is kind of neat that it actually features in the film (the setting not the pose). John Alvin (the artist) has done some amazing work over the years but I like this one the most.
Special note: I also LOVE the work of Drew Struzan who for some reason just doesn’t have a poster on here but really needs to get a special mention as his posters are very awesome.
So what are your favourite posters of all time?
