Analysis of Inception: Film Posters

For the film Inception, three main posters were produced. Each of the three posters have strong similarities, not revealing too much but creating an image that can intrigue a viewer to want to know what is happening. 

          

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First look: Similarities


On the first look of each of the three posters similarities are instantly visible. All three posters show a city of some sort, but in different ways. In each poster, the way in which the city appears is considered wrong in a normal expectation. In the first poster, the city is flooded - it appears that the sea is coming in on the city. In the second, the buildings appear to be bending around the characters, like the city is collapsing in on them. Finally, in the third poster, the hole city itself appears to be folding in half. This creates an understanding that something is different, that something is happening to the city itself. The use of these manipulations create a confusion for the viewer, wanting to understand exactly what is happening and why it is happening. 


Other similarities in the poster are the people within - it is clear from the posters who is the main character within the film, as the same person is at the center of each (this being Leonardo Dicaprio). The way in which the characters within are particularly informing about what is happening. In the first of the three posters, the main character is standing in what appears to be a sea in the middle of a sea - but he looks calm, and is just watching. This suggests that he knows why it is happening, and the gun which can be seen in his hand suggests that there is some sort of fight/war ongoing. 


Warner Bros Film Posters


For Warner Bros films, the marketing is very similar - in particular for film posters. Throughout different marketing projects, a lot of Intertextuality is used on the film posters which are created.


In relation to the Inception posters, there are a couple of film posters created by Warner Bros which can be strongly compared with those created for Inception.

 

Above are a poster from three movies: Inception, The Dark Knight and The Matrix.


From simple looking at the three, it can be easily seen that there is a lot of intertextuality occuring - with large buildings being placed around a character located in the middle of the portrait. In each of the three posters, it gives a sense that the characters are small - with massive things (buildings) surrounding them.