The Best Movie Posters of 2017
It’s that time of the year again and I’m still not all that confident that I’ve seen a wide enough variety of movies to accurately make an acting or other technical “Best of” list, so for the second year in a row I’m going to be showcasing some of my favorite posters that were made for 2017 releases. I have to once again point out that impawards.com is maybe the best resource for movie posters on the internet and thank them for immeasurably helping with the research.
Alien: Covenant
This stunning one-sheet for the latest Alien film looks like it came right out of H. R. Giger’s sketchbook. Various staples of the franchise including xenomorphs, facehuggers, engineers, and vaguely sexual imagery, clash to create a creepy but impossible to ignore scene. The shadows do a lot to entice, obscuring the edges of the frame and the finer details, leaving you with only a small amount to grasp to while implying a much larger picture (that does exist and is equally fascinating).
The Beguiled
Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning have a side-eye face-off and we’re all winners. You can always count on a Sofia Coppola movie to have a great poster, The Beguiled’s sort of calling back to the poster for the Virgin Suicides with the sideways tilt that makes all the difference. The pink hue in the room matches with the calligraphy to create an aesthetically cohesive photo.
The Big Sick
This beautiful watercolor-like poster for The Big Sick was only produced for German cinemas, but it puts the fairly basic American poster to shame. The couple, Kumail Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan, sit on opposite sides of the frame staring at each other in front of a beautiful vista (that admittedly has basically nothing to do with the movie that takes place largely at night or indoors). The heart balloon wrapped around the “I” is a nice touch.
A Cure for Wellness
Minimalism at it’s finest. The titular “Cure”, a well chosen bright blue colored vial with Mia Goth floating in the middle, is put dead center of a white background, so you have no choice but to study it. This striking image has stuck with me throughout the year, far longer than Gore Verbinski’s movie itself did.
Ghost in the Shell
Say what you will about this controversial live-action adaptation of the popular anime movie series, Ghost in the Shell had some great images used in the marketing. This alternate poster is covered in a deep red and showcases a number of characters from the film. A sinister robotic geisha looms overhead of this oppressive image that fairly represents the film.
Ingrid Goes West
Ingrid Goes West has more than a few exciting neon soaked posters and it was hard to pick just one, so I didn’t. Both posters here cleverly allude to the film’s theme of social media obsession, one by showing Audrey Plaza biting down on an iPhone displaying the object of her fixation, and the other is overlaid with a photo filter that fractures Plaza’s face, hinting at a slightly cracked mental state. The painterly aesthetic added to the mosaic is an especially nice touch.
Jigsaw Blood Drive
The posters advertising the return of the Saw franchise weren’t all that exciting (and actually seemed to tease a movie that I don’t think was delivered), but these posters, made for the return of the Saw series’ companion blood drive, are something else. This year’s drive put an extra emphasis on inclusivity given the US’s discriminatory one year abstinence period on gay and bisexual men who want to donate blood with the “All types welcome” tagline and use of gay and transgender models. The white outfits really pop against the white cubist backgrounds, and everybody looks glamorous.
John Wick: Chapter 2
John Wick: Chapter 2’s marketing campaign borrowed from several different sources, including video games and graphic novels, and the results are a lot of fun. But my favorite remains one of the most traditional of the bunch. Keanu Reeves’ hitman stands with a circle of guns pointed directly at his head, a perfect representation of the hopeless situation Wick gets himself in by the film’s end, where it seems like the whole world is gunning for him.
The LEGO Batman Movie
Individual character posters have become a staple of ensemble action flicks, but none this year were as striking as the one’s created for the LEGO Batman spinoff movie. These 11 posters showcase a variety of the friends and foes that Batman interacts with including Robin, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Mr. Freeze. Each portrait is messily airbrushed onto a bumpy LEGO background, creating a lush tactile, textured look.
mother!
mother! is an absolute classic in my opinion, and thankfully it’s got a pair of wonderfully painted posters to go along with it. Jennifer Lawrence stands literally offering out her heart, gorily torn from her chest, in a fantastical forest space while Javier Bardem holds an orb as he sits in his chair engulfed in flames. These images could easily spoil the film if studied for long enough, as they actually perfectly represent the film’s truly insane third act.
The Shape of Water
Nearly every poster for Guillermo Del Toro’s monster romance film is great, but I’m particularly fond of this hand-drawn one. Our two heroes embrace in a dreamy underwater scene in what looks like a bit of concept art that was just too good to throw away. The otherworldly image is simply transfixing.
Wonder Woman
The pride of the Amazons stands tall against a beautiful orange skyline. This one-sheet almost made it’s way into last year’s list until I made the decision to only include current year films, and my love of it hasn’t faded. The image perfectly portrays the strong feeling of hope and, well, wonder that the film gets across so well, which is a little odd considering the extra significance an element on this poster has after seeing the movie.
The Snowman
Memes.
