When a new James Bond movie is being filmed, my anticipation for the next installment in the series grows intensely. I get into an agitated state the closer to the film's release we get. Eventually it gets to a point where all I want to do is watch, listen, talk, think, breath, and unconsciously be 007. So while you may not care one iota about the James Bond film franchise, I do, and therefore since this is pretty much my blog (and by that I mean "this is my blog") I am going to find any way possible to write about my hero of the silver screen. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but to not like James Bond is to not like me. Okay, that might be a little harsh. But if you truly have no interest in James Bond or movie posters, then the next 24 posts are going to bore you immensely. I would suggest you take a break from my website and come back in about a month's time. All three of you.
To begin with, this series will focus on the posters of the James Bond series. Now, I have had to set a few parameters with this because in the world of movie marketing it is very common to see numerous posters and other artwork promoting a film to be released. And that doesn't even take into account the fan-made artwork that can be found on the Internet. So, for the purposes of this series, I am limiting the posters I have ranked to only the one's found in theaters throughout the United States. And even after whittling down the criteria to domestic posters only, I had to narrow it down a little further because there are not only different styles of posters (usually labeled Style A and Style B), but there are also the theatrical release and teaser posters (just like with movie trailers). Even with the most recent movie in the series that is currently filming, Spectre, a poster was created to tease the announcement of the title. Then a teaser poster was released. And we are currently awaiting the theatrical poster to be unveiled. It is getting a bit outlandish when it comes to the overhype it takes to release a movie nowadays.
For the purposes of this series of posts, I will be ranking the James Bond one-sheet posters that were released in the U.S., are not teaser posters, fan-made publications, or some other type of special-edition artwork, and when having to narrow it down between two or three posters that all fit the criteria of a one-sheet U.S. theatrical poster, I have picked the more popular piece that would be recognized by not only 007 aficionados, but also casual moviegoers as well. Let's unveil our first, and lowest ranked, poster.
24. Licence to Kill
Poor Licence to Kill. It has so many things going against it. It stars one of the least popular Bonds. The Bond girls, villain, and henchmen are commonly overlooked or forgotten altogether when reflecting on the series as a whole. The action was considered to be too violent at the time for a 007 picture. And the movie overall was outmatched at the box office in the summer of 1989 by other action blockbusters like Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2, The Abyss, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
But can you really blame anyone in 1989 for wanting to go see the third installment in the wildly popular Indiana Jones series, the second buddy-cop pairing of Riggs and Murtaugh, or the follow-up film from a director who made The Terminator and Aliens? And the image above comes nothing close to this in creating buzz about an upcoming feature:
While it seems normal in today's world for a comic book film to be big business, in 1989 that was not the case. Yet, with the help of the simple, but slick, image above, Batman became the highest-grossing film of the year. The Batman poster was a huge success and has become an iconic image in Hollywood and comic book circles since.
So what is wrong with the poster from Licence to Kill that makes it come in last place on my rankings? Like many near the bottom of my list, it simply is boring. Besides an unknown explosive fireball coming up from the bottom of the frame and Timothy Dalton's Bond standing with a gun pointed at the viewer, nothing else really sells the movie as being dangerous or adventurous, which is what a big part of the James Bond series is. It does include the two Bond girls from the film, but even that seems to be a mistake as the image used feels like a last-minute addition that the publicity department stuck on there from an unused marketing photo that was going to show up in a Vanity Fair piece about "The Women in James Bond's Life."
The poster just doesn't do much in the way of getting me excited about the movie. It doesn't provide anything in the way of possible action that will be seen in the movie and it isn't sexy enough to entice the other parts of my reasoning for liking the Bond series. It's just an underwhelming piece of artwork.
For the final portion of this entry in the series, I will post my favorite poster from Licence to Kill, with no restrictions other than that it isn't fan made. My favorite poster from the 16th picture of the 007 series is the U.S. one-sheet teaser.
It is still a weak marketing piece overall, but the undone bowtie and tagline sell the movie a bit more than the theatrical poster from above.
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