2012: Day 3 – The Posters

In Part 3 of WAMG’s look at 2012, we’ll take a look at the posters marketing the film as well as other disaster themed posters. Back in August, I showed you some of  the  dazzling  posters from director Roland Emmerich’s apocalyptic movie. For me, there’s nothing better than when  you go into  the theater, movie posters towering all around,  and you  instinctively walk right up to one  that catches your eye… especially  the visually cool  ones. That film is immediately locked into the brain and  you begin  thinking about what the first teaser for the film will look like on the big screen. Funny enough, this latest one for 2012 is reminiscent of THE 10 COMMANDMENTS, although Heston’s “Moses” has a far better outcome,  and with a totally different type of  “God’s Wrath” looming in the distance. No burning bush or stone tablets to save this Tibetian Monk. It’s the perfect final, one-sheet for the end of the world.

There have been many interesting posters for disaster films. MGM’s 1936 classic, SAN FRANCISCO, disguised as a drama/love story so as not to  totally freak out  its audience, was the biggest movie of that year. It was based on the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. The best part of the movie doesn’t happen til almost the end.  The disaster film is  filled with a great cast of Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, and Spencer Tracy. The final earthquake scene, with the Barbary Coast Barroom and the actors  being shook on a special platform to simulate the big one,  was innovative for the time. Director Brad Bird (RATAOUILLE AND THE INCREDIBLES) is in production with his own take on the great quake  in the disaster film 1906  to be released in, what else, 2012.

The titles say it all…”PLANETS DESTROY EARTH!!” splashed across  in ominous, glaring font. 1951’s WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE is no doubt a fantastic  doomsday film, but what is with the helpless,  screaming woman at the bottom right. So stereotypical of the time.  Bless filmmaker Ridley Scott for changing that with Ripley from ALIEN.  But that’s another article. As I was saying, the giant planet, Bellus, is on a collision course for Earth and an escape ship is  built, filled with  food, animals, books, medicines, and people  with the golden tickets to make the trip to nearby Zyra.  As the poster shows, the group lucky enough to be chosen escapes off the planet just before the Earth has a close encounter with Bellus. According to IMDB,  a remake of the film is scheduled for release in 2010  from director Stephen Sommers  (THE MUMMY, VAN HELSING, G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA).

I love how the posters from the 1970’s always  had a lineup of the major stars right below the graphics. As if  daring you to place a bet on which actors or actresses would live or die, it  gave audiences the inside track, even before the first frame of film,  on which players would face “HELL, UPSIDE DOWN.” Who wouldn’t want to make a wager  to see  how fast  Charlton Heston could outrace “THE EVENT” of a quake, or whether Gene Hackman could escape the capsized Poseidon, or if  Steve McQueen and  Paul Newman  lived thru “A NIGHT OF BLAZING SUSPENSE.”

This poster for INDEPENDENCE DAY or ID4 marks the beginning of Roland Emmerich’s obsession with massive explosions and almost utter  annihilation  of the planet. In 1996, he started off slowly with ID4 by having the Earth invaded by the “no negotiations”, hostile  aliens and having them be the bad guys in destroying Los Angeles and New York. This poster showing the gigantic spacecraft hovering above New York City was awesome  and the simple tag line “The question of  whether or not we are alone in the Universe has been answered” was enticing.

 “ITS HOTTER THAN HELL” in downtown Los Angeles as the boiling heat seeps through  in this  poster  for 1997’s VOLCANO. Poor LA can never catch a break.  After an earthquake in Southern California hits, scientist Anne Heche (yeah, right)  realizes that a volcano has formed under the streets of Hollywood and will soon erupt, spewing molten lava that will  start flowing  throughout the city. Isn’t that the reason for the LaBrea Tar Pits?  The poster for the theater was funny, but the tagline for the dvd was  howlingly better, “THE COAST IS TOAST!”

In 1998’s dueling asteroid flicks, DEEP IMPACT and ARMAGEDDON,  film-goers were greeted in the theaters with  these  final one-sheets  with lots of   red comet tails,  stars, and  the Earth in there somewhere.  Real critics and even the scientists praised DEEP IMPACT for its scientific accuracy, but the  paying movie going audiences loved ARMAGEDDON.  While I prefer the Michael Bay/Bruce Willis film, both posters come out in a cosmic stalemate. As Michael Clarke Duncan’s character, Bear, says, “Hey man, let’s draw, and let’s see who’s gonna stay up here and dance.”

Global warming and cooling were the focus of Emmerich’s 2nd disaster film,  2004’s THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. The apocalyptic film depicts the catastrophic events of a new Ice Age through  intense scenes, a la The Weather Channel. If you notice in this poster, once again Emmerich decided to lay waste to New York City under an icy, snowy blanket.

I’d certainly say from this 2012 poster released over the summer, “WE WERE WARNED.”

Come back tomorrow for our final part. In Day 4, we’ll look at Adam Lambert’s music video “Time For Miracles” from the film. 2012, starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, with Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson, opens on Friday, November 13th.