10 Movie Posters That Lied To Your Face
Movie studios will do just about anything to get your money.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 When looking forward to a film, everyone handles it a little differently.
00:03 Some of us want to soak up all the anticipation by watching every second of footage that gets
00:07 released and some of us avoid the trailers as much as possible so we can go in completely
00:11 clear of expectation.
00:13 That being said, whether you head to the cinema or boot up a movie on your streaming service
00:17 of choice, you can't avoid at least seeing some kind of marketing image.
00:21 Over the years, many films have outright fibbed about their content to us in order to get
00:24 us to part with our cash.
00:26 Sometimes it's a sneaky little misdirection and other times they get away with bold-faced
00:30 lies.
00:31 The film posters on this list made promises they couldn't keep and you'll never get
00:34 your money back because of it.
00:36 I'm SciForWhatCulture.com and these are 10 Movie Posters That Lied To Your Face.
00:41 10.
00:42 X-Men 3 - The Last Stand
00:44 Before the MCU kicked open the door for any combination of Marvel characters to grace
00:48 our screens, we had the X-Men trilogy.
00:51 Getting excited for a new X-Men film was kind of like waiting for a new Pokemon game to
00:54 come out.
00:55 What kind of new friends and enemies would we see this time?
00:58 Each entry in the franchise included new mutants from the back catalogue of the comics and
01:01 The Last Stand was no different.
01:03 Angel, with all of his boyish good looks and his luscious wings, was a big part of the
01:07 marketing for the film and he appears on every single poster, usually clad in the X-Men's
01:12 leather uniform.
01:13 It feels like Ben Foster probably only got to wear the outfit for one day however, and
01:16 that was for publicity shoots as during the run time of the film, Angel never dons the
01:21 outfit.
01:22 Having a new member of the X-Men team on the poster does not reflect the movie's course
01:25 as Angel's story is pretty much its own thing entirely.
01:28 Additionally, the poster also features Cyclops all suited up and ready to fight.
01:33 Infamously, this is a blatant red herring considering the fact that he's killed off
01:36 unceremoniously 25 minutes into the picture.
01:40 Justice for Scott Summers!
01:41 9.
01:42 Frogs Frogs is a totally bizarre 1970s eco-terror
01:46 film about wildlife photographer Pinkett Smith, as portrayed by Sam Elliott, who, whilst exploring
01:51 a swamp, gets wrapped up in the strangest series of events.
01:55 Taken to a private island, numerous animal-based murders occur and landowner Jason refuses
02:00 to let Pinkett leave.
02:01 The poster for the film and the title are actually both misleading, as whilst frogs
02:05 are certainly mentioned, the marketing for the movie seems to imply a much greater role
02:09 than they get.
02:10 Looking at the poster, you'd assume that this was a movie about giant man-eating frogs.
02:14 Not only are the frogs totally normal sized, they're also not all that important an aspect.
02:19 There's a lot of random deaths in the film caused by any number of animals - lizards,
02:23 tarantulas, eagles, snakes, leeches - but the frogs don't really get involved until
02:28 the final moment.
02:29 And do they eat someone?
02:30 No.
02:31 Their en masse appearance seems to cause death by heart attack.
02:34 Most likely this is a case of an artist being given the film's name and genre and then
02:38 just coming up with something based on that alone.
02:40 It's a totally nonsense movie at the best of times, so perhaps the poster is suitable
02:44 for being equally ridiculous, but if you promise giant man-eating amphibians, then you better
02:49 deliver.
02:50 8.
02:51 My Sister's Keeper
02:52 If your initial expectations for My Sister's Keeper are bright, warm and sunny, then you
02:56 have the poster to thank for that.
02:58 Cameron Diaz is smiling, Abigail Breslin is smiling, and Sofia Vasiljeva is innocently
03:03 blowing bubbles.
03:04 This looks like a heartfelt and wholesome romp about a happy family.
03:08 In truth, these characters have very little to smile or blow bubbles about.
03:11 The story follows a rather twisted family dynamic.
03:14 Diaz's Sara and her partner have their second daughter Anna expressly for the purpose of
03:18 harvesting her organs to sustain the life of her leukemia-ridden older sister Kate.
03:23 Terminal illnesses, legal clashes between family members and mortality are not the subjects
03:28 that come to mind when you see this poster.
03:30 Let's just say, it's not exactly the kind of thing you'd pick for a cosy night at
03:33 home or a family film gathering.
03:35 What's promoted as a touching drama is actually a pretty harrowing affair, and Sara forcing
03:40 her daughter into medical servitude is some pretty god-awful supervillain stuff.
03:45 My Sister's Keeper is a fairly melodramatic tale that involves a lot of shouting and crying.
03:49 There's not a lot of smiling or frolicking to be had, despite what the poster seems to
03:53 imply.
03:54 7.
03:55 Reign of Fire
03:56 2002's sci-fi fantasy flick Reign of Fire should have been a slam dunk.
04:00 The concept of a world under siege from once-hibernating dragons was exciting and a fresh evolution
04:05 of the dinosaur mania that had gripped the world following Jurassic Park.
04:09 Its star-studded cast includes Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, and Gerard Butler, just
04:14 to name a few.
04:15 You could sell the picture today on that alone.
04:17 Still, it never quite succeeded in the way that it should have, and some didn't enjoy
04:20 the film's grey and grim Mad Max-style post-apocalypse wasteland.
04:25 It probably didn't help that the marketing for the film was a lot brighter, and had some
04:28 frankly fantastic visuals that don't show up in the movie.
04:31 What makes this poster worse than being a lie is that it looks, quite intentionally
04:35 of course, way more awesome than the actual movie is.
04:38 With dragons flying over a burning modern day London, it seems to imply that the setting
04:42 of the picture is during the war between humanity and giant lizard, rather than in truth set
04:47 decades after the fact.
04:49 Of course, such a thing would have been a budgetary nightmare, but marketing your movie
04:52 like it's the next big CGI blockbuster when it doesn't have the chops to back it up
04:56 makes this a pretty big misdirect.
04:58 6.
04:59 Bridge on the River Kwai
05:01 This 1957 war drama is widely considered one of the best films of all time.
05:05 It certainly has the accolades to back it up, being the highest grossing movie of its
05:09 year, winning 7 Academy Awards and being now preserved in the National Film Registry for
05:14 its significance to Western culture.
05:17 That being said, for all that it did well, there were some very weird missteps along
05:20 the way.
05:21 Bridge on the River Kwai has a few promotional posters, but one that stands out is the one
05:25 with William Holden's character, Commander Shears, standing tall with the eponymous bridge
05:29 in the background.
05:30 Holden has first billing on all of the film's marketing, but what makes this strange is
05:33 that he's arguably not the picture's main character.
05:36 A pre-Obi-Wan Kenobi Sir Alec Guinness plays Colonel Nicholson, whose character is at the
05:41 heart of the bridge and who has the most important arc of the story.
05:45 A British soldier who becomes obsessed with his labour to build the bridge, Nicholson
05:48 ends the film by taking down his work in a final act of defiance.
05:52 Colonel Nicholson is the beating heart of the piece, so this poster seemingly saying
05:56 it's all about Commander Shears' thrilling heroics is all wrong.
06:00 5.
06:01 Mortal Kombat 2021
06:03 The original Mortal Kombat film might be B-movie nonsense, but it did give us the adored dance
06:08 floor filling techno theme tune, so we have to thank it for that.
06:11 Mostly it was gloriously stupid fun, with the highlight being the fight scenes with
06:15 the series mainstays Sub-Zero and Scorpion, even if they are brief.
06:19 It felt as though the 2021 reboot of Mortal Kombat had this in mind then when the marketing
06:23 for the film put these two characters in pretty prominent positions.
06:27 The movie's poster was literally just these two faces and nothing more, and the trailer
06:31 seemed to back up the idea that this would be a colour-coded ninja-focused affair.
06:35 In actuality, whilst it is the best scene in the film, Sub-Zero and Scorpion's interactions
06:39 are contained to the first 15 minutes and they're not even in their classic garb.
06:43 After the fight concludes, we jump forward to the present day.
06:46 Sub-Zero acts as an ongoing antagonist of the flick, but Scorpion only returns in the
06:50 final showdown in a rather muted fashion.
06:53 Mortal Kombat released during the Covid-19 pandemic and asked for a pretty hefty rental
06:57 fee, especially here in the UK.
07:00 How did it get you to part with your cash?
07:01 Promising you a story focused on two characters that barely interacted in the film.
07:06 Number 4 - Camp Hell
07:07 There's definitely something wrong with knowingly making a poster to pull the wool
07:12 over your audience's eyes to make a quick buck.
07:14 It's bad when it's a big studio, but it's somehow worse when it's a group of small
07:17 filmmakers trying to ride the coattails of a kind favour.
07:21 Camp Hell is a 2010 horror film that explores the clash of religious faith and sinful urges.
07:26 It's generally regarded as of middling quality and a pretty pointless movie to watch.
07:31 More infamous than anything about the film itself is the way that Jesse Eisenberg reacted
07:35 to being on the poster.
07:36 To help sell the film, Eisenberg agreed to appear in a cameo for a reduced fee as a favour
07:40 to friends of the production.
07:42 Even as the most successful actor in the film's runtime, especially off the back of the social
07:46 network, he didn't anticipate that the poster for Camp Hell would be nothing more than just
07:50 his floating head.
07:52 In June 2012, the actor won a preliminary court case suing Lionsgate and Grindstone
07:56 Entertainment for misrepresentation.
07:59 He didn't want to be part of the charade when he knew full well he only had a brief
08:02 appearance that was shot in less than a day.
08:05 Eisenberg earned $3 million in damages, which is more than the movie's budget, going to
08:09 show that, like crime, telling lies doesn't pay.
08:13 Number 3 - Escape from New York
08:15 Escape from New York is the tale of a walled-in Manhattan prison and the mission of one man,
08:19 Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken, as he ventures inside to save the United States President.
08:24 The film's poster depicts Snake and company seemingly trying to escape a riot, with the
08:28 head of the Statue of Liberty lying prone in a random Manhattan street.
08:32 It's famous for multiple reasons.
08:34 First of all, it's a really cool piece of art and the kind of thing you'd frame and
08:37 hang on your wall.
08:38 Secondly, it doesn't reflect a scene in the film - it's all made up.
08:42 There is exactly one moment where we see old Libby and that's near the start of the movie.
08:46 Fun fact, this is the only part of Escape from New York actually shot in New York.
08:51 At no point does the statue ever come back into things and naturally, of course, she
08:54 doesn't get beheaded either.
08:56 Come to think of it, considering she's way offshore, how exactly would the Statue of
08:59 Liberty's head end up in a random street anyway?
09:02 It's certainly a really cool image, but it badly misrepresents the film.
09:06 If you were waiting to see that crazy action sequence, you were going to wind up disappointed.
09:11 Number 2 - Dracula 3000
09:14 Dracula 2000 is an edgy and altogether awful noughties revamp of Bram Stoker's classic
09:18 tale, so why anyone would want to pay homage to it by creating a film called Dracula 3000
09:24 is beyond comprehension.
09:25 At least it's faithful in that, like Dracula 2000, there are also almost zero redeemable
09:30 qualities in its runtime.
09:32 Set aboard a spaceship 1,000 years in the future, cyborg Aurora and vampire slayer descendant
09:37 Abraham Van Helsing must fight off Count Orlok and stop him from getting to Earth.
09:41 The vampires of the film look exactly like the most low budget expectation of a vampire
09:46 as possible.
09:47 Red contacts, fake fangs popped in over the teeth, impractical collars.
09:51 So what the heck is that thing on the poster?
09:53 Clearly trying to evoke the futuristic feel and going way too far with it, it badly misrepresents
09:58 the film and promises a lot more than it can deliver.
10:01 Some sort of cyborg vampire hybrid would have actually given this flick something interesting
10:05 and it definitely gets the mind turning over way more than the movie deserves.
10:09 As it stands, the vampires in Dracula 3000 are boring, which is at least perfectly in
10:13 tune with the story, directing, casting and everything else.
10:17 But hey, at least it's got that crazy poster.
10:20 1.
10:21 Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines At one point, Terminator 3 was considered
10:25 the worst of the Terminator films, but then a few more came along that got progressively
10:29 shoddier.
10:30 The franchise had once been a clever sci-fi thriller, so many disliked Terminator 3 - Rise
10:34 of the Machines taking a bigger step than before into ultimately thoughtless action.
10:39 Schwarzenegger returns to the main role of the T-800 and his duty of protecting John
10:42 and Sarah Connor continues against the new threat of Christiana Locken's TX.
10:48 What makes matters worse is that before the film's release, the posters seemed to show
10:51 so much more potential than the finished product.
10:54 Under Arnie's cold and blank expression was what appeared to be an army of Terminators
10:58 with the TX at the forefront.
11:00 This ensemble of robots and the subtitle 'Rise of the Machines' seemed to imply that the
11:04 film would finally be an all-out war between humanity and Cyberdyne's creations.
11:10 What we got instead was a watered-down version of Terminator 2 that put the franchise to
11:14 bed for six years.
11:16 Terminator Salvation finally gave us a look at the mass-scale clash of human and cyborg,
11:20 but ironically, its poor reception made Terminator 3 a much easier pill to swallow by comparison.
11:26 And that's the list.
11:27 Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below and any other movies
11:31 that you can think of that are completely different from the poster.
11:35 Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends, subscribe and hit that notification
11:39 bell.
11:40 I've been Sy for What Culture and have a good week!
11:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]