Man of Steel (poster)

The Man of Steel poster shows the main character (Superman) flying above a city at a high velocity (demonstrated by the blur of the city in the background). The genre is relatively well represented as a super hero-action film, as Superman is flying over a city at a great speed, this demonstrates the over-grandeuse special effects which super hero films are famous for. The genre is also accentuated by Superman's stern expression, while he is flying through the sky, is expression should be much lighter, however it seems as if he has a large weight on his mind and is ready to fight.

The main unique selling point is the fact that it is another superman film, therefore the movie will already set itself out from other superhero films as the superhero is already very well known and has its unique, established fan base. the poster makes this very clear that it's a superman film by displaying the colours of the franchise.

The location of the poster is a large metropolis, this shows that the movie will be set in a heavy urban setting, this suggests that the film will be eventful and exciting, as cities in general are known to be hives of activity and crime. The motion blur in the poster further shows this, as it demonstrates Superman's power and speed. It also shows Superman's superiority over the city, as he is passing it by without paying it any attention

I personally believe that this poster is not particularly effective at attracting the audience to watch the film as it gives almost nothing to the viewer in terms of the Revelation of the genre, It does show superman, which admittedly implies that the film will be of action packed nature, however there is no real implication of the events which may transpire within the film, Even the flying can easily misconstrued to be jovial rather than a demonstration of power.

Man of steel (trailer)

Man of Steel is an action, super hero film, therefore it relies primarily on good special effects and extensive fight scenes. However in the trailer there is no real activity until around 1:20, arguably this could be used in order to gain suspense, along with the slow, droning, mildly building music, in a sense this technique is effective, however, after the first 30 seconds I believe the effect became somewhat monotonous, because at this point in the trailer it was essentially just slow clips of human characters and had a distinct lack of "epicness" that the entire superhero genre demands. I believe the "suspense effect"  ends about 10 seconds into the piece, and anytime after that is  excessive

In the last minute of the trailer, the only part with any real action, the dramatic quire singing doesn't stop, there is also no sound to go along with the events unfolding on screen, this distinct lack of digetic sound is a very poor move, considering the genre of the film and the previous part of the trailer. The lack of digetic sound to go along with the action is a technique better used in trailers for heavy, dramatic movies such as  Romeo and Juliet, because it shows the viewer that action will take a back seat compared to the dramatic storyline. This is a bad technique for Man of Steel because, In general, super hero movies have very little real drama, granted, there are a lot of dramatic moments but generally not long, sustained moments of emotional turmoil and character development, most of the film is ridiculously over the top fight scenes mixed with mind blowing special effects. Another reason why this technique was a poor idea is that the trailer had been building up tension for 1 and a half minutes, the viewer was ready for a sudden explosion of action and thrill, however they were greeted with a slightly louder, dreary soundtrack with some minor action intermixed with more drama.

All in all, I don't like this trailer, it seems far too melodramatic to be a super hero movie. The awkward mix of action and drama seems to repel both it's target audience and anyone interested in drama films. The entire method of giving the super hero an in depth personality does not give the super hero genre any justice, it just makes it seem pretentious and trying to jump on to the band waggon of all of the new "soul searching" films