Film Preview: Annie (2014)

Poster

Poster #1

Additional posters can be found below.

Trailer Link

Release Date:

December 19, 2014

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Business tycoon and mayoral candidate Will Stacks launches a campaign to take in Annie, a young girl who has been living with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan since her parents left her as a baby.”

Poster: D / C / D+ / C

Review: It plays on the classic title design of the original Annie while providing a lyric to one of the film’s more prominent songs. It’s clearly a teaser, but one that doesn’t really get anyone excited.

(#2) Asian markets get one of the better designs, making this look like an actual musical rather than just a orphan comedy.

(#3-#4) Take the third design and swap in a more vibrant background and you have a drastically improved, but somewhat lazy poster design. The only other difference is the dog Sandy’s positioning, which is only a slight tweak.

Trailer: C / C-/ D+

Review: Being a musical, this trailer isn’t very musical. Sure, they hint at singing and dancing, but everything seems so clinical and inexpressive. Cameron Diaz doesn’t look very good and Jamie Foxx looks like the grade-C ham he’s always been. We see so little of the titular star doing anything that remotely looks like acting that you think the trailer craftsmen either weren’t give enough material or they were instructed to avoid anything that might not look too great.

(#2) It’s a hard knock life for anyone who actually likes the musical Annie. In the second trailer for the film, Cameron Diaz is given less screen time, the music from the musical continues to be background filler and the precocious titular character is even relegated to support for “Daddy Warbucks.” If they keep going, it is all but guaranteed to flop.

(#3) Annie is more centrally focused in this third trailer, but there’s an even smaller emphasis on this being a musical and Cameron Diaz might not even be in the movie if you believe this design. The more of these that come out, the less interesting the film looks.

Oscar Prospects:

I’m sure there will be chatter, but the movies doesn’t look very good, so I’d imagine that chatter won’t go anywhere. Its stars might receive pity nominations, but even that is doubtful if it’s a strong enough year.