Poster Analysis World War Z

This is a poster analysis for World War Z. This poster conforms to stereotypical conventions of a poster in the thriller genre. The theme of this poster is chaos, in the image we see a post apocolypic world in which zombies have taken over Earth, the urban location is a typical element of a thriller movie suggesting action which is a mus have for all thriller movies (i.e. chase scenes, alley way fights etc.) In the foreground of the poster we see Brad Pitt who is the hero in the film he is positioned in front of the sun giving the illusion that the light is coming from him connotating purity, maybe suggesting that he is the hope for the planet, notice that he is surround by darkness possibly foreshadowing the demise of humanity (or the infection) closing in on him.

Unusually the character is on his knees kind of leaning over looking down on the city, this could suggest that he will have difficulty in restoring the equilibrium to the story. By being on his knees it shows weakness and vulnerability as typically the hero is seen standing up in a bold position ready to fight.

On the poster there is little writing suggesting that this is a teaser poster used when the movie is being previewed in cinemas. The use of the title is a play on words, even thought people are unlikely to have seen the movie at this stage they make it obvious that it is about zombie with the use of Z representing the word zombie. The white text of the title symbolises purity innocence and life with the contrasting red Z symbolising evil, pain blood and war, with the faded serif font it gives an idea of age and decay.

If we compare this to another recent thriller, the poster from the Purge it is very different in the since that if we look at the image for the other movie it is very usual and does not conform to typical thriller features. The idea of the poster is to mimic the the American Flag which is associated and can be understood by any audience, it suggests the location of the film. To people who have seen the previous movie they will recognise both the use of the flag and the amalgamation of the red stripes and weapons. The redness looks like graffiti being sprayed on to a canvas, suggesting criminal acts which is ideally what the film is about. The use of the tagline 'AN AMERICAN TRADITION' establishes time to the poster making the viewer possibly go back and watch the older film. The colours are patriotic again going back to this idea of it being a tradition (blue suggesting loyalty, trust, peace and authority).

The tagline for The Purge also suggests that the movie is one of a series, if it is seen as a 'tradition' then it suggests future movies as well; as oppose to World War Z which is more likely to be a one-off film. 

This does not have any character type featured in the poster which is unusual for a thriller, simply thought the flag suggests it is representing the whole of the USA as one.