Film Reviews and Ratings

After completely research into existing film posters, its clear to see how including a review, quote or rating can be an effective way to attract the target audience. We have decided this is something we are looking to include in our film poster, so therefore it is necessary to decide on an appropriate way of doing so. Below are images taken from a number of posters that have used a variety of ways to attract the audience through an external quote or opinion.

These three quotes are taken from the poster for The Raid 2, an action film. This particular poster features several ratings and quotes from a variety of sources. By using the bright yellow, bold, sans-serif typography (all in capital letters) contrasting with the dark background image, the reviews stand out immediately and draw attention from the reader.
In terms of the content of the quotes, the length and lexical devices varied. The first quote "Jaw-dropping", uses the well known idiom to relate to the audience thus making them trust the review. The second review also uses a short quote to impact the audience. By saying "An action masterpiece", the film is placed on a pedestal and is giving the impression that it is better than other action films. The third quote, "Masterfully tense... a monumental experience" uses a lot more wording than the others in the poster however is still very effective. By calling the film an 'experience', it tells the audience that they will not only be watching a film but be taken on a journey.

This quote is from the poster for Minority Reports. It uses synthetic personalisation with the word 'your', directly addressing the audience encouraging them as individuals to watch the film. The five-star rating is displayed in a different colour, making this stand out even more.
"One of the greatest movies ever made", is a very bold statement and could be easily challenged but cleverly entices the audience to see it for themselves.

Quite often posters mention awards and nominations in order to attract an audience. They are often well established and therefore work well to promote the film.  

The Gravity poster uses the technique of having a lot of reviews randomly placed, disorientating the audience thus conforming to the genre. It also features play on words, putting all the space related terms in a bold font. As you can see, in this particular poster, the reviews make up the basis of the attraction rather than the background image. This is a more modern approach to advertisement and promotion of films, stepping away from the stereotypical visual appeal posters usually adopt.