Film Preview: The Star (2017)

Page Revisions:

(August 13, 2017) Original
(October 22, 2017) New Trailer (#2) / New Posters (#1-#3)
(November 12, 2017) New Poster (#4)

Release Date:

November 10, 2017

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “A small but brave donkey and his animal friends become the unsung heroes of the first Christmas.”

Poster Rating: C- / D / D+ / C+

SEE ALL POSTERS BELOW
Review: (#1) It’s not hard to see this as a Christmas story, which will work for getting Christian family audiences to the theater, but it’s not a very compelling design. (#2) Worse still is the sky-like background with the guiding star appearing to be just the sun. That doesn’t have quite the impact they desired. (#3) Doubling down on the daytime sky background concept and importing the more perspectively interesting manger scene from the first design, the two don’t quite mesh well enough.

(#4) This Spanish-language poster firmly tells the audience what this story is about even if it glosses over the background details of the narrative itself.

Trailer Rating: D / C-

SEE ALL TRAILERS BELOW
Review: (#1) When Prince of Egypt came out, the trailer was pleasantly appealing the the film’s content was straightforward and easy-going. This film takes on a slightly different story, but does so in a chunky, crass, humorless way that feels like it’s trying very hard to push and brow-beat the audience into seeing it.

(#2) There’s a little more humor, which will help with the appeal to kids, but the adults aren’t likely to be terribly amused unless they’re looking for a good Christian movie to take their kids to and this would qualify. So, even though the entire film looks hyper-childish, it could still be a success.