Film Poster Comparison Analysis

The genre of ‘Sex Drive’ is comedy, adventure and romance. From the image it portrays a man lying down aligned with the title of the movie. Firstly, a speed meter with the needle pointing upwards where is deliberately placed in that position to signify humour as the needle is connoting the man’s penis (phallic symbol), from this it sends a message to the audience informing to give a basic understanding of this movie. That being said, you can see that they interpreted the genre with the poster. For instance, it can be seen as a comedy by the phallic symbol used. It can also be seen as an adventure because the speed meter can also connote a long distance drive, and finally romance because the title itself has the word ‘sex’ in it so therefore the audience are hinted  the genres of this movie in a visualized way.

The image only takes up half of the actual film poster, which leaves plenty of space for the one sentenced texted located in the top half of the poster, which is ‘He can’t wait to take it out for a spin’. The fact that they do not reveal what the object they are talking about allows only the mature to understand it. Normally, this phrase is mentioned for when a person has a car, however, in this case they are ultimately implying a penis but associating it with the image at the same time. The target audience for this film is a 16-30 year old, C2DE demographic.

The genre of this film is a Sci-Fi thriller. The image displays a developed city destructed and shaped resembling a skull in a futuristic society. Instantly, this sends a direct message to the audience informing the genre, really effectively. In comparison with the other film poster, both similarly use an unambiguous image to portray the genre and the plot to the film itself. The skull could connote evil and usually when you see cities destructed, it usually is taken over by the villain in the movie, but in this case it also displays a resemblance of a skull.

Unlike the ‘Sex Drive’ film poster, the image fills the whole poster creating a more tense and complex atmosphere connoting that there are a lot of things going on in this movie. In regards with the evil perspective of this film, the text says’ The End Begins’. This is very effective as it directly addresses the image showing a demolished city and mentioning that this is only the beginning. As an audience, seeing that the place is already in such a bad state already, you would want to find out who will resolve the situation and how much worse can it get. This also signifies that it is only the beginning, and most people who are going to watch this movie may have already seen the previous sequels to this movie.Therefore, they will be engaged and would want to see how the sequel ends.Similarly to the ‘Sex Drive’, the target audience is the 16-30 C2DE demographic.

Overall, taking into consideration how both movies approaches their target audience. I personally feel that The Terminator Salvation has a more effective film poster simply because The Terminator poster has more features which allow it to engage the reader.