While the world was raising a martini to 007 on official James Bond Day on October 5th, there were also bubbling emotions of anticipation and hope of what potentially EON might share with fans regarding the upcoming twenty-fifth Bond film No Time To Die.
It seemed like a perfect opportunity to ignite further buzz for the long-awaited return of Daniel Craig in his final outing as Bond. Plus, after an extremely long haul of never-ending gossip, delays and production problems it was about time to quell fans worries regarding the film.
It would also be nice to start turning around the concern Bond fans have felt about the production into enthusiasm for the movie. Why not show them something that will make everyone breathe a sigh of relief, widen their eyes and get really jazzed for No Time To Die.
A teaser trailer was the most welcome candidate by fans. Alas, no trailer or new footage was released. However, Eon did provide fans something – the new teaser poster for the film.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say, it didn’t receive the most glowing reaction out of Bond fans.
The teaser poster simply shows Craig in something of an awkward photo, along with the title of the film largely emblazoned over him. There really isn’t much to say about it. The words – underwhelming, boring, uninspired, come to mind.
I understand movie posters today are much more different than the classic movie posters of the past. Styles have changed from the days when film posters were made by artists who would take paint to canvas and created stylized, exciting images to help sell the film to audiences.
Looking at some of the James Bond posters from the past, you immediately see how different film promotion was from today. Powerful, striking images that to this day still make fans gaze at in awe. There have been some great stuff made!
Even aside from 007 posters, going through the years of cinema and seeing old poster designs sometimes feels like you’re looking more at an art museum than a marketing campaign. The movie might be awful, but the poster for Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is one of the greatest posters ever made!
Today many film posters consist of faces of the actors adorned in blue and orange tint. There is the trend of creating individual character posters for actors starring in the movie. Simple and uncomplicated has become the norm. Maybe the logic is basic designs are received better when they’re shared on social media – where most promotion happens today.
Films today don’t need a big astonishing image that movie goers would only see in movie theater lobbies to start promoting their film. I still remember seeing the poster for King Kong 1976 and being completely blown away by it. I knew I had to see that movie! I had a picture of that poster in my bedroom for years!
Despite the change of times, I still think it doesn’t mean a film’s marketing should neglect its poster image. It’s still a big part of the promotion campaign for a film and it shouldn’t be something that’s breezed over. So seeing what they released as a ‘teaser poster’ for the newest Bond film…I think a bit more effort could have gone into what EON released.
Looking at it, I’m still very puzzled as to why they went with this particular photo of Craig. I imagine they must have thousands of photos of him on set filming they could have chosen from. Why did they settle on using this particular photo? I have no idea. Unless all the others photos they had were out of focus, I don’t see what’s so special about its selection.
If I were to have seen this photo accompanying a magazine article about No Time To Die I wouldn’t have even reacted to it. There’s nothing really wrong with the photo, but it’s also not very special either. So, them announcing it’s the ‘official teaser poster’ and realizing they’re going to print this thing on big sheets of paper and send them out to movie theaters around the world….that leaves me confused.
I believe I’m with the majority of Bond fans who feel quite unimpressed with the image they choose as the launch pad for the No Time To Die promotion. It didn’t really do its job of helping build anticipation. The font for the title still looks odd to me too.
So, it might be a lousy teaser poster, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect on the final film itself. All the problems and misgivings fans might be having about No Time To Die will all be washed away – IF the movie is good. That’s all that really matters. We can forgive a film for having a lazy teaser poster as long as we’re walking out of the theater with big satisfied smiles on our faces.
That still doesn’t mean we can’t have a bit of fun and poke some jokes at this teaser poster though! Come on! With all the problems this film has had you just have to laugh at each subsequent misstep that’s taken place getting to a final release for this movie. Maybe this will be the last one…
And from a few years ago, here’s a look I did of James Bond posters the film series has had.
Part 2!
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