RANT: I like movie posters

 I’ve always loved the movie posters for the Matrix reloaded. High contrast pictures that cut off most of the character’s faces so you can gawk at the wonderfully over the top cyberpunk costumes. I like how Neo’s and Morpheus’ coats flare out like super-hero capes. I love the twins. It’s like they’re posing for panels in a comic book.

I truly love these posters and back when anticipation for the Matrix sequel was an all consuming obsession for nerds like me, I could just stare at them wondering why (most versions of the posters) cut off the top of their heads? Was their some deep meaning behind them? A symbol that what we’re looking at are avatars and that their minds are actually somwhere else? Thematically, are we being reminded that these characters are victims of the engineered fatalism of the Matrix? Wachowskis wanted us to believe that everything about these movies, games and ancillary anime cartoons was part of some larger puzzle. That turned out not to be the case and the movies were mostly a let down, and though this franchise inspired the style of other movies for years, the Matrix overall was a disappointment and hasn’t been revisited.

I just have to add the poster of Persephone, because I love this. The, subtle way that all of the fingers hang seems very evocative of the character.

Now, imagine my shock when 15 years later, the Last freaking Jedi decides to use the same gimmick of cutting off the top of their characters faces in their promo material.

Hey, knuckleheads, the whole point of the Matrix posters is that the costumes were so iconic that it was immediately striking to have the costumes at the center of the poster. Even if you want to argue that the costumes in the Last Jedi are interesting enough to be the focal points of these posters, these people decided to obliterate the costumes in a rusty red colour. Why red? Why are the posters a big, splattered, red mess? These posters are super ugly. I hate you Star Wars sequels.

But, I’ll do something I don’t normally do and say something nice about the sequel trilogy. I do like the Force Awakens posters.

Though I am concerned about Finn’s and Kylo’s eye sight. I’m also still bitter that they felt the need to trick us into thinking Finn was Force sensitive when he’s not. Sequel trilogy is so strange.

I also like these a lot.

And absolutely love these paintings by Dan Mumford for the Force Awakens Imax promo material.

These posters had my imagination running wild and were a large part of the high bar I set for this ultimately very disappointing movie.