The basic function of a design is to reach out to the person viewing it and try to create that visceral response. Designs are created with the purpose of making people want to buy a product, use a service, or, in the case I am going to discuss, watch a movie.
Movie posters serve as one of the ways for potential audience members to become attracted to see a film, giving them just a slight hint towards what they could expect from the film they are about to watch. It has less media to offer than, say, a movie trailer, which means it has to work doubly hard to grab the attention of a potential viewer with nothing but a single, still image.
Let's look at one of the most classic movie posters of all time: Jaws.
This poster says so much with so little. The one-word title is lettered in bright red against a stark white background, a contrast so bold it almost pops of of the page. Then there is the vertical-upwards facing arrow that is the shark, leading our eyes upwards towards the small, doomed girl swimming. The shark also directs our eyes back up towards the title, which further reinforces in people's minds the title of the film as well as the sense of dread that it will evoke. There have been many other discussions about the poster for Jaws and the possible symbolism that was intended (the shark is an oddly phallic shape heading towards the female swimmer), in terms of design it is near-perfect and is iconic for this very reason.
In fact, many movie posters from this time were special because each one was unique and each one had its own purpose.
Fast forward to the modern era of movie posters and movie advertising and there seems to be a strange lack of creativity with each successive advertisement. Take a look at these examples:
While they are not necessarily "bad" posters, they definitely lack the iconic sting of the Jaws poster. Out of these three, The Dark Knight definitely stands out to me as having the most superb design due to the use of contrast in colors (blue and orange) as well as the use of scale and lines to draw the eyes upwards towards the giant, flaming bat-logo. However, these are all examples of the modern trend that has seemingly taken hold of cinematic advertising these days which involves just placing the hero on the poster and having him stand there looking either at the ground or off-frame. There is no storytelling there, just a guy standing there looking cool.
Jaws' poster tells a story and makes us want to see if the girl survives (even though we have a pretty good idea she won't).
Another lazy (and in my opinion poor) choice of design layout on movie posters is placing the main character's face on the front, looking right at the viewer while angled slightly down. Take a look at these examples:
Again, there is no story, nothing significant about the movie being said. Based on these posters, why should a viewer be interested in seeing the film? In these ways I feel these design fail in comparison to some of the more classic poster designs. They contain the generic design laws and follow basic rules but don't do what design should do: grab attention.
