Critique wanted for possible movie poster

[EGGO]

We're working on a movie poster for the new Resident Evil movie. Before I put this in for critique, I need critiques from a few people. Though you guys may not have quite the understanding of graphic design or art techniques, I think you still have a good eye on things.

This is one of 3 possible posters. This is the dark and clean version; later on, there will be a dark dirty/grungy version (if you've seen my grungy stuff, you may like it).

Things to look for:
-Is the title too big/small?
-Does the emptiness of space beside the character still feel balanced from the bottom (with the help of the title and character names)?
-Is the character names nicely spaced from each other and placed properly on the layout?
-Is the characters faces obviously clipped out? (i.e. does it look like it obviously doesn't belong in there)? If yes, where at?

Things that cannot be helped:
-Color of title
-Main character (Millia) has to be either as big or bigger than the other characters
-Her name must be at least 1/5 the size of the title and must be first.

One other thing, you're also not allowed to save this poster and/or post it anywhere else on the net (otherwise I'm in legal trouble) so please understand I'm really trusting you guys in this.

Thanks for any comments/criticism (C&C).

[Psyonide]

Well, from the list of things that are open for comment I only have one suggestion. It's the woman in the middle - the cut-out seems to be fine but she looks a little out of place because her skin-tone is so pale and almost de-saturated compred to Jovovich. So, perhaps raise her colour a bit? Apart from that it looks pretty good.

Oh, the names a the top, maybe raise them a smidge. The second is touching (or close to) the top of the head, but there's a chunk on empty space above it.

That's all

[Gospel]

The title is a little too large. I understand that a title needs to be prominant, but this is too much.

Move it down a bit to offset this. A big title in the middle of the poster doesn't read well.

The top of the poster is also too empty. You have all this black space which abruptly breaks into blue color. The character faces look too lonely at the top, and not in a good way.

I'll look the poster over some more, and see if I can think of anything better.


EDIT: Hmm...I think the title looks like of crappy. The color is nice, and I suppose the font will have to be kept as well. Try shrinking the size a bit, and make "Resident Evil" one line, instead of two. Try it like this:

RESIDENT EVIL
APOCALYPSE (Well, you get the idea. Larger size on top, with a smaller "Apocalypse" under it.

[EGGO]

Originally posted by Gospel
The title is a little too large. I understand that a title needs to be prominant, but this is too much.

Move it down a bit to offset this. A big title in the middle of the poster doesn't read well.

The top of the poster is also too empty. You have all this black space which abruptly breaks into blue color. The character faces look too lonely at the top, and not in a good way.

I'll look the poster over some more, and see if I can think of anything better.


EDIT: Hmm...I think the title looks like of crappy. The color is nice, and I suppose the font will have to be kept as well. Try shrinking the size a bit, and make "Resident Evil" one line, instead of two. Try it like this:

RESIDENT EVIL
APOCALYPSE (Well, you get the idea. Larger size on top, with a smaller "Apocalypse" under it.

Lovely critique.

I thought keeping the main characters this side would be iffy. I thought I can get away with it like how the Batman Returns poster was done.

Unfortunately, as much as everybody (including me) hates how they handled the title logo, there's nothing that can be done about that except scaling.

-I thought of having the title on top of the thing, but then I'll have to move the actors' names (if I want to keep them on it, I can delete them freely if I wish).

[Jase]

i dont like this poster and the things i was goin to say change you can so sorry i mean i like the pics of the people and stuff i just would of liked to see it darker and the title to be more gothinc but i like the font of it and stuff i would of like to see the darker ones thou but you most likly aint able to show them so i'll have to wait

[Gospel]

The large face of the central character works good, but the smaller bodies seem somewhat out of place.

Perhaps if you could find smaller headshots of them to place beside it and let me see how that looks?

[Jase]

Originally posted by Gospel
The large face of the central character works good, but the smaller bodies seem somewhat out of place.

Perhaps if you could find smaller headshots of them to place beside it and let me see how that looks?

you mean sort of a lord of the rings look? that would look cool

[EGGO]

Originally posted by Gospel
The large face of the central character works good, but the smaller bodies seem somewhat out of place.

Perhaps if you could find smaller headshots of them to place beside it and let me see how that looks?

I tried to get more photographs of the actors, but there's really no good headshots unless I'm willing to go the extra mile of extracting them from their movie scenes, which isn't what I would like to do because it seems redundant (that's what trailers are for =0�)

Anyway, here's the changes I made after the critique.

We can either use the first one (Exhibit A), or we can go a little more baroque and go for the 2nd one (Exhibit B). Baroque is a lot of light/shadows and diagonals...though there is no diagonals here I still feel the more shadows gives it that baroque feel. I've also got rid of some lights that was in the billing block in the bottom (all those words) for easier reading.

[Gospel]

Hmm...the top doesn't look nearly as empty, but the images of the supporting characters dominate the main actor. Can you make them a little smaller?

Also, try blending that zombie picture at the bottom into the blackness of the top some.

[EGGO]

Originally posted by Gospel
Hmm...the top doesn't look nearly as empty, but the images of the supporting characters dominate the main actor. Can you make them a little smaller?

Also, try blending that zombie picture at the bottom into the blackness of the top some.

Lemme see, I know it's a tad smaller, but even a tad makes all the difference no? The first image is the one from the top (Exhibit B).

The bottom is what your critique has led me to.

[Gospel]

Slightly better, but I still say the supporting cast can be a bit smaller, for better balance.

Also, can you change the picture of that guy? It just doesn't work well.

[EGGO]

The only picture I have of the guy (Carlos) is a closeup of his face unfortunately. The only picture I have posing is the black guy (who is Sgt. Peyton Wells).

Any suggestions besides making the supporting cast a tad smaller? (How much smaller in scale to Millia's head?)

[KnightofNachos]

Haha, you removed the black guy in the newer versions. That's hilarious.

[EGGO]

Originally posted by KnightofNachos
Haha, you removed the black guy in the newer versions. That's hilarious.

=0� I'm probably going to put him back in the final version.

Anyway, deadline is semi-close, so I had to start the 2nd one. I was almost done with this until someone reminded me that, quote, "We're not allowed to have blood."

So that quite sucks because it would've been great having bloody handprints. Oh well. This is as best as I can get it though. There's no photography here (all had to be made) so hopefully the critiques won't be so hard otherwise I'm going to have to do so many things over again. =0)

The only thing I really want to change is that little saying on the top, but I don't know a good saying, or the best place to put it (much less if it even looks right in there).

The 3rd one I'll try to see if I can put a zombie crowd in it.

[Jase]

thats a wick poster but like you said the top title needs work how about:
the end is near
battle of the city
hope of the city
um thats all i can think of at the moment they sound pretty shitty but i hope you can work wit them