Did you know that Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds was the first campaign for a Tom Cruise-starring film that didn’t feature the star’s face on the poster? The folks charged with selling Jack Reacher to the public sure haven’t, and they don’t seem to feel like they have anything going for them other than Cruise, as so far the posters have been Cruise’s face, and Cruise with a shotgun. I don’t know who they’re marketing to… Tom Cruise still isn’t 6’5″ and doesn’t weigh 250lbs, so they’re definitely not winning over the book fans with this shit.
I love Cruise, but come on! Sell me something!
Even from a shallow Hollywood design standpoint this poster strikes me as lazy and ugly. The costume choice, the posture, the gun, the image editing, the typeface, the confused expression, the tagline… it’s all so lazy, as if it wants your eye to slide right over it without out catching a detail. It’s exactly like the movie posters designed to appear in the background of other films- meant to look real, but not to draw any attention.
Here’s that other teaser poster. Hopefully the trailer will have more character.
