'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Poster Looks So Familiar. Do You Know Why?
When the first full Avengers: Age of Ultron poster was released earlier this week,
you might have felt a sense of deja vu: Our heroes standing around,
looking off-camera while striking fighting
poses with the exception of
Captain America, who’s just kind of…standing there? It’s pretty much the
poster for the first Avengers movie, except with added flying robots in
the background.
That
shouldn’t be surprising, of course. Avengers changed a lot of things
for superhero movies in general, but it changed one thing very
specifically for Marvel Studios movies: posters. Whether it was
intentional or coincidental, the result of targeted research or
superstition, Avengers heralded an era where every single Marvel
movie poster was made of the same basic elements. Here’s a quick guide
to the necessary ingredients for a Marvel Studios poster:
The original ‘Avengers’ poster
The Hero(es), Staring Off-Camera, Probably FrowningInstead
of showing the characters actually in action, or in a relatively
passive hero pose, Marvel posters always seem to be intended to be shots
taken in the lull of some big battle, with the villains just off to the
side of the viewer and the heroes almost inevitably beaten up or, if
Tony Stark’s Iron Man is available, in some state of disrepair. The
message is likely intended to be “It’s all just about to happen, true
believers! Stay tuned!”
Destruction of Some SortGoing
along with the idea that the posters are “happening” in the middle of a
big battle, it’s almost a certainty that the heroes will be surrounded
by scenes of carnage in some form or another. While the Age of Ultron
poster is so packed as to make this almost impossible, viewers should
note the remains of a building between the heroes and the flying
homicidal robots. It’s not quite at the level of “exploding buildings”
as in the original Avengers poster, but at least it’s an attempt, right?
Something in the SkyYou
might think that the space behind the heroes should be left relatively
empty to let the image breathe, but if so, that’s just a sign that you
don’t work for Marvel Studios. Whether it’s falling Helicarriers (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), fireballs (Thor: The Dark World), remote controlled suits of armor (Iron Man 3) or alien spacecraft (Guardians of the Galaxy), skies are there to be filled with objects to get fans speculating about what it all means. Age of Ultron’s flying Ultron drones, by comparison, seem almost too obvious.
Unconvincing Photoshop
One obvious running theme throughout the Marvel posters is the Uncanny Valley of it all. Sure, all the characters are there next to each other, but they just don’t look right. Light sources aren’t consistent, and in some extreme cases (The first Avengers poster being one of the worst culprits here), the tones on each of the figures are eye-catching in their inconsistency. The reason? Each of the shots have been taken in isolation and then composited together later, but in such a way that your eye can tell that none of these people were in the same place at the same time.
One obvious running theme throughout the Marvel posters is the Uncanny Valley of it all. Sure, all the characters are there next to each other, but they just don’t look right. Light sources aren’t consistent, and in some extreme cases (The first Avengers poster being one of the worst culprits here), the tones on each of the figures are eye-catching in their inconsistency. The reason? Each of the shots have been taken in isolation and then composited together later, but in such a way that your eye can tell that none of these people were in the same place at the same time.
Comic book artist David Aja made a joke about Age of Ultron’s Photoshop usage on Twitter shortly after the poster was revealed, tweeting the below image and “Sorry.”
Logo PlacementThe
bottom third of any Marvel poster is given over to the movie’s logo and
the credits. It’s an odd tradition, at least in terms of the movies’
comic book origins, with covers traditionally giving their top thirds
over to the logo. This one, at least, is far from unique to Marvel —
most movies follow the same layout, presumably due to the credit block
placement and desire to keep all the text together. (Also, it’s the one
rule Marvel is happy to break: the first Guardians of the Galaxy
poster featured the logo at the top of the image; thankfully, order was
restored with the fact that the team was standing on top of rubble and
looking off to the side of the viewer, so not all was lost.)
Marvel’s
posters weren’t always like this; the posters for the first two Iron
Man movies and the first Thor and Captain America installments are more
traditional in their layout and, interestingly, brighter in both tone
and color. It’s possible that the grim, muted nature of everything that
followed was intentional for the “Phase II” era of the studio, and that
we’ll see something else as we head into “Phase III,” but if not, let’s
hope that Avengers: Age of Ultron will prove to be an end to this era of increasingly generic, boring posters.
Interesting...very interesting
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