Seriously, how freakin' amazing are the images on this poster? Check out the lasers in the background. Pure 80s badassery. Less successful however, is the clunky-as-hell text. For some reason I hadn't noticed it until now. "The rulers of the planet devised a plan..." That makes it sound like an episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The end part also makes it sound like thehumans were the ones that sent the terminator back in time. Still, the rest of the poster is sweet, and it only gets better with the poster for the sequel...
Aside from the tagline, this poster is as close to perfection as you'll find on this page. The motorcycle, the pose, the shotgun, the steel-blue lighting, the facial expression... A triumph. The poster I mean, not the bike. That's a Harley Davidson Fatboy, but that's beside the point. What's with the tagline? "It's nothing personal." Who is that aimed at? The T-1000? The poster designers did know that Arnie was the good robot, right? Or is it some kind of play on words because he's a robot? Either way, not very good.
Rounding off this trilogy of awesome Schwarzenegger sci-fi posters is Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall. This one is deliberately ambiguous, but does give you a little taste of other-wordly goodness with the pyramid and planets. "Get ready for the ride of your life" may be quite generic for a tagline, but suits the theme quite nicely.
On to another Paul Verhoeven masterpiece: RoboCop. This image is made of the dreams of every young boy ever. It's so straight to the point. He's a robot, and a cop... He's RoboCop. That's all you really need to know. The tagline drives it home even further. 'Part Man. Part Machine. All Cop.' Just sheer perfection.
From one satirical master work to another, District 9 is an incredible movie, and the majority of its marketing fits with its theme splendidly. This alien target-practice sheet is proof of that. Poor fookin' prawns.
Look, I know that the majority of people reading this are gamers as well as movie lovers, so I know that the concept of a video game master getting transported to a real galactic war is one that would resonate with you as much as it does with me. This poster is excellent. The wonder, the artistry and the text all convey the feel of the film perfectly.
The poster for the ecological space movie Silent Running has artwork that immediately inspires nostalgia. Personally it reminds me of the sci-fi/adventure novels I read as a kid. If only more posters would make us feel like that!
This franchise is full of good posters, but for my money the very best is this poster for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It sells the theme of an ape-uprising so perfectly, and the tagline 'Evolution Becomes Revolution' is obvious but excellent. Then again, a tagline of 'Why Cookie, Rocket?' would've been just as good.
Okay, so the movie doesn't look quite as good as this poster makes out, but who cares? The artwork by Robert E. McGinnis makes this poster seminal.
There is a style to the posters of Stanley Kubrick films that tends to evoke the feel of his films magnificently. This poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey is no exception. The symmetrical art on the side of the poster is pure Kubrick.
And finally, the original 1927 poster for Fritz Lang's expressionist masterpiece Metropolis so perfectly captures the style and essence of the film, that it's almost like they're living organisms with a symbiotic relationship. If you haven't seen the film, track down the complete edition of the film on blu-ray immediately
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