Trailer Link

Release Date:

August 1, 2014

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “In the far reaches of space, an American pilot named Peter Quill finds himself the object of a manhunt after stealing an orb coveted by the villainous Ronan.”

Poster: C- / B+ / B / B (8) / B / B- / C+ / B (6)

Review: For a teaser, this is incredibly uninteresting. Yes, it poses our characters, but that’s it. There’s no depth or substance beyond that.

(#2) For decades, poster design has used a basic technique that puts its character into a type of pyramid with various bits of action going on around them. The reason is because it works. The entire flavor of the film is explored and when the right color palette is mixed in, everything pops. This is a good example of when it works.

(#3) A foreign language rendition of the standard group poster. It differs enough from the second design to be unique, but not enough to be special.

(#4-#20) From the character posters to the separate traditional posters, there isn’t a lot of variance between these designs. They all work in their own ways with the four-quadrant sixties style (poster #13) being the least impressive.

Trailer: B / C / C+ / B-

Review: Amusing for sure, but all I could ask while watching this is: was this a trailer for a superhero comedy? Superhero films have an element of humor, but few are outright comedies. This looks to be more of a comedy, perhaps with comic elements. It could be amusing, but it could be entirely self-interested.

(#2) Apart from getting “Hooked on a Feeling” stuck in my head every time I watch these trailers, the general lack of interest in showing off anything but its quirky cast makes it difficult for audiences to know if the plot is worth watching. Undoubtedly, this film will help set up the next Avengers team-up, but is that all there is?

(#3) There isn’t much improvement in this third trailer, but it probably paints the most accurate picture of the film it possibly can. It won’t have the gravitas of the Avengers universe films, but it will probably please comic fans to no end, which is really the only reason the film exists in the first place.

(#4) We finally get to see the primary villain, we get more details than we ever have before and we begin to wonder if it’s really just going to be a galactic shoot-em-up comedy. The trailer works better than the last couple, but the effervescent fun of the originally can’t seem to be duplicated.

Oscar Prospects:

Perhaps a visual effects nomination, but that’s as far as I can imagine it going.

Revisions:

(March 2, 2014) Original
(May 25, 2014) New Trailer (#2) / New Poster (#2)
(June 8, 2014) New Trailer (#3) / New Poster (#3)
(July 27, 2014) New Trailer (#4) / New Posters (#4-#20)

Additional Posters