Last week 20th Century Fox released two very interesting international character posters for X-Men: First Class. This week two additional posters, which were apparently made for the American market and which also highlight the film’s two main characters Magneto and Professor X, were released. The contrast between the international and domestic character posters could hardly be more extreme. If international fans are getting Chateau LaFite, Americans will have to make do with Ripple. The domestic posters feature facial close-ups of Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and James McAvoy (Prof. X) looming out from full figure shadow silhouettes of their familiar mature comic book/film incarnations. 

 

Unlike the evocative backgrounds of last week’s posters (see “X-Men: First Class Posters”), which provide real clues to the events and environments that formed the characters of the film’s two antagonists, the two new designs are simplistic to a fault. Yes they indicate that the film will show how Charles Xavier became Prof. X and Eric Lensherr turned into Magneto, but these posters look like they were photo-shopped by a fourth grader blithely unaware of the differences in scale between the color facial inserts and the shadowy silhouettes. Sometimes, particularly in a striking graphic design, less can indeed be “more.” This time less is less.