10 Modern Movie Poster Trends That Need To Die

Sparks, flying debris, floating ash, smashed glass – whatever the damage, a movie star can stroll through it without fear of injury. Having your lead saunter past scenes of cataclysmic destruction is the easiest way to make them seem tough and formidable, and is basically the poster designer’s answer to ‘Cool Guys Don’t Look at Explosions’.

Almost every major blockbuster movie - from Harry Potter to The Expendables - employs this trick, often in conjunction with one of the nine previously listed tropes. Other notable offenders include Christopher Nolan, Michael Bay, and any Marvel Studios movie.

This cliché can add a sense of danger and urgency to a poster, but more often than not it makes no logical sense, if you give it a moment’s thought. Most of the time, it just seems like somebody is lurking out of frame with an angle grinder, trying to distract the poster’s subject.

Add to this some slapdash layers of orange and blue, a protagonist facing away from the viewer, some oversized text, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s giant head, and you’ve got the blue-and-orange-print for a thoroughly unoriginal poster.