Poster analysis

 I am Legend is a film that came out in cinemas in 2007. It is post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. Smith plays virologist Robert Neville, who is immune to a man-made virus originally created to cure cancer. He works to create a remedy while defending himself against mutants created by the virus.

In the poster there is a clear indication that Will Smith is the main character as he is the only character in the poster. It is also quite obvious that the city that the character is in has been abandoned as you can see plants growing in the road while you can also see that the bridges leading into the city have been destroyed. From the bridges you can judge that the city is New York as the main bridge on the image looks like the remnants of the famous Brooklyn Bridge.

The largest text on this poster is over the actor Will Smith. This is obviously done to attract more people to watch the film as Will Smith is a popular actor and plenty of people have heard of him so for the film to have a Hollywood “A - lister” will be a big boost for the films chances of being successful.

You may also be able to tell that Will Smiths character is holding a gun. This connotes that the character may know that he is in danger. Which leaves the audience wondering, what is he in danger of and why?

The colour scheme of this poster is yellow, black, brown and white. These colours all have connotations of burning. This links with the destruction that has ensued with the bridges on the poster. The colours in the poster are not exactly bright either which resembles the bleak time that the main character is in. The text on the poster is in white but is always against a darker area of the poster this makes the text standout a bit so that any onlooker will catch the text a bit easier. Surprisingly the text of the film is actually smaller than that of the star actor which signifies how much the film is looking to Will Smith to attract an audience.

The tagline on this poster is “the last man on earth is not alone” this confirms to the onlooker that the main character on the poster is the last person on earth however there is also an enigma as it says “is not alone” this suggests that something else is out there. This is in contrast to the image in the poster where Will Smiths character is supposedly the only person left on earth.