Movie Marketing

New Transporter 3 Poster Looks Oddly Familiar

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 1, 2008

I’m no expert — the comment section here at FSR has proven that time and time again — but I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that the folks over at Lionsgate, the studio currently distributing Transporter 3 here in the states, are getting a little lazy with the marketing. A few days ago, the gentlemen at JoBlo debuted the final poster for the film, which stars Jason Statham as Frank Martin once again. The only problem that I can see is that it looks exactly like the posters from the two previous films. And when I say “exactly,” we are talking cut-and-paste similarities. Have a look for yourself with the comparison below.

See what I mean? Is this man not interesting unless he is falling to the right, firing back at some off-camera bad guy? In my personal opinion, they could have probably come up with something a little more exciting. Then again, that’s just me.

What do you think of the final poster for Transporter 3?

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44 Comments

HempKnight757 says:
September 1st, 2008 at 6:51 am

Lazy

Nevernude says:
September 1st, 2008 at 7:05 am

lazy? noooo…i like it. Its very consistent with the other posters.

mike says:
September 1st, 2008 at 7:09 am

nevernude is right, i’m suprised they change the color to blueish

Karlis says:
September 1st, 2008 at 10:39 am

It’s called style ;P A nice reference to previous films, I just hope the 3rd movie will bring something new in the series, otherwise we don’t need another Jason Statham flick.

Trace says:
September 1st, 2008 at 10:53 am

Yeah, it’s consistent - and it does fall into place with the style this franchise has developed. But still, they could have thought of something else. But you can’t mistake it for anything else - you don’t need the text to tell you it’s a new Transporter movie.

Mr. Rev says:
September 1st, 2008 at 12:30 pm

super lazy

have him upside down, atleast once in a poster!!!!!!!!

Nish says:
September 1st, 2008 at 1:16 pm

They should have palnned a quadrilogy and have him first shooting to the left, then the right, then up and then down. and maybe have a bit of an image in the corner of each poster so when combined, he’s shooting at god or something.

pepper says:
September 1st, 2008 at 6:17 pm

Now we’re talking, a Transporter 3 movie to be released! Jason Statham’s martial art style is
super tight. The 2nd movie in the series was way better (especially since they took out the
crappy music from the first one and put in a stylish orchestral score). I just hope that they
do the same with the new one. In elke geval (that’s Dutch for anyway), bring it on! I’m in
line.

Jack says:
September 1st, 2008 at 9:29 pm

This is the only thing Jason Statham is good for.

Jack says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:28 am

You can see that his form is in the shape of a 3, which is probably why they did it.

wisn says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:33 am

that sexy girl looks like a cartoon, eh?

ltchimo says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:47 am

The main character never really developed until the sequel. I can’t wait for this movie to come out! Because I’m an idiot.

digitalizes says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:50 am

Branding is everywhere these days and this is just another example of it. I take your point though….I would much rather see something more original, but major compnaies would prefer to build THE BRAND.

alan wrench says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:12 am

actually… look carefully and he’s completing the diving turn from the first one, so it’s one dive, 3 frames. awesome

griiot says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 am

wow, in france the second one was different, so the (europacorp) branding is for us market only…

booboo says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:34 am

It makes sense, because all three movies are the same anyway.

MT says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:07 am

Hey, c’mon, it’s blue!

Sam says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:22 am

“It makes sense, because all three movies are the same anyway.”

Except you know..the first one was actually a decent action flick.

name says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:28 am

actually in closer look he is spining around and in 5th part we can expect to see his back…

qrst1 says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:56 am

I think it’s great! I paid to see the second, very shitty movie, then saw the first one on DVD. Notice the (admittedly minor) difference between the first and second posters, then the similarities between 2 and 3. This poster is telling me to save my money and instead of seeing the third movie, wiping my ass with it! At least that would be a better use for my hard earned dollars.

qrst1 says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:59 am

I LOVE IT! I paid to see the second, crappy movie, then saw the first on DVD. The (admittedly minor) difference between 1 & 2 and the almosts identicalness of 2 & 3 tell me I should save my money!!!

Jordan says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:08 am

For the sake of Peter he’s wearing the same damn shoes too!

I’m willing to bet they copy and pasted parts of the the script from the first film.

John says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:26 am

Well, that may not be true in other countries… in France (for the second episode at least), he falls to the left and the angle of view is rather nice…

http://www.krinein.com/img_oc/2726.jpg

Josh Woods says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:34 am

Gosh I wish they had not killed off that beautiful blonde from the last movie. I would pay DOUBLE to see her again! She was SOOOOO HOT!

Jiff
http://www.FireMe.To/udi

You're A Moron says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 am

Perhaps your should familiarize yourself with a dictionary. Specifically, you should learn the definition of “exactly” as it obviously escapes you.

The three posters are all different. They all follow the same theme but, they are NOT exactly the same. They are not even mostly the same.

Finally, I find it rather predictable that the third film in a sequel series would use themed promotional material. If the films follow a theme, why wouldn’t the posters?

Daryl Surat says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 am

I love the Transporter films with all of my heart–I refer to them as “Jason Statham Drives a Car and Kills People, The Movie” which is actually how I refer to EVERY great Jason Statham movie–but the movie posters for it continue to mislead. At no point does our hero ever at any time in any of the films hold two pistols at all. He has fought off people with an axe or disarmed some guy by taking off his shirt and tying the guy up with it more times than he has even so much as touched a gun in these movies. But I can live with that. What annoys me about the Transporter movies is that they all get cut down to be PG-13 in America instead of R, and we never seem to actually get the proper original cut of the movie. You have to get the European release for those. I thought the whole point of effectively doing away with the region coding is so we WOULDN’T have to deal with this crap anymore.

You want to talk crappy marketing decisions? I’ll give you one: the fact that US movie studios continue to try and double dip on Blu-Ray releases even though the discs cost like, 3 or 4 times as much as a DVD. So I can buy the super cool unrated edition of a movie (like say, The Transporter) on DVD for $5-$10 but the Blu-Ray one is the edited cut only minus the extras and it’s $40? You would think the way to market the new format as superior would be to show that it has everything the old format did and then some for roughly the same price.

Also, that girl from the second Transporter 2 movie was the Eurotrashiest ever, which was the entire point. The director of the first two movies once said that the big secret of The Transporter is that he’s actually gay, but I don’t think I can hold the fact that Frank Martin was grossed when the empress of eyeshadow licked his face as proof of such a claim.

A.W. says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:00 am

It’s called brand recognition. Learn to love it.

subcorpus says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:02 am

i like all 3 posters …
then again … its just me … :P

Brandy says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:05 am

It’s a consistency that let’s the viewer know precisely what line of films they’re referring to. If it really were the very same photo in every poster, I would be disgusted and call them lazy as you have. In this case, however, it’s no more unusual than most trilogy posters tied in together, such as The Matrix, Pirates of the Carribbean, or –dare I say it –older films such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Indiana Jones.

Vichus Smith says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:37 am

(Daryl Surat, I see you!)

It’s not an “obvious cut and past job” It’s three different posters. The difference is all in the gun poses. If this was the 80s, it would be three chuck Norris movies with Chuck doing three different types of kicks, with only the number in the title changing.

Are we really gonna nitpick about a poster? Posters are mostly digitally chopped and enhanced BS anyway, right?

Youz be smart says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 am

@You’re A Moron:

Maybe you should look up ‘hyperbole’ in that very same dictionary. Let me know what it says.

I think the movie will be fun to watch!

PNutty says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:03 am

This article = epic fail. Trying to create something out of nothing. The 3rd poster is consistent with the last two. If you think it’s cut & paste you are obviously blind. Perhaps they are lazy, like this article.

Samuel says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:20 am

Look at Back to the Future I, II, and III. Exact same look. I actually enjoy when movies look similar. You can very quickly reconize and know what it is and they all look lovely together up on a shelf.

anon says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 am

wow, they really DO look the same. you know, i don’t think i would have figured this one out on my own! Thanks Neil Miller!!!!!!! i don’t know where i would be without your investigative journalism!

they look SO similar that you’d think they were part of a series or something. i can’t believe hollywood thinks they can just pull stunts like this. it makes me so angry.

my only criticism of this article is that perhaps on the transporter 3 cover he is actually jump kicking to the left and firing his weapon, as opposed to falling to the right? oh but my goodness… we must speak in theater terms, so he is actually felling stage left, or jump kicking seagal style stage right… help me Neil, which is it!?

Cole Abaius says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:43 am

Whether or not its lazy, I think we can all agree it looks bad. The color choices don’t make any sense, that middle section is just sort of…there…and that girl looks like she’s an anime character unless the poster is giganticized. I get the feeling even the poster-makers realized that it looked bland so they decided they needed something else…maybe a car and a girl…but where to put them? Hmm? Randomly in the middle seems fine, and throw in some nebulous laser-blue streaks - fire was so 2005.

I’m also not a photoshop expert, but Statham’s leg seems to be doing some pretty un-leg-like stuff in that shot.

And yes, we are going to nitpick a poster.

reizig says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm

It’s adhering to a theme

AngieBatgirl says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:14 pm

He clearly has a different scowl on his face in each poster. You obviously don’t know your Jason Statham ;D

The poster is just following the other 2 movies. It’s the third in a series, why shouldn’t it look similar?
I just hope it’s better than the second one.

flurrball says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm

I believe he is falling to the left

Fan of JS says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:43 pm

It’s a theme they’re using. It was iffy when the second one came out, but now the third one’s here, it’s now an official trend. Like when i watched the first two starwars (original) i hated the crawl, but now i expect it every time i see a starwars movie (curse you clone wars!)

frostillicus says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm

maybe he could have been falling to the left and shooting to the right….. or maybe they could have came up with a slightly new idea….. or maybe it’s the style… i’m glad i don’t have any style

kpfingaz says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:50 pm

I like it. At least they changed all the fiery stuff and did a cool blue thing.

shawn says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:12 pm

seriously everyone. did anyone say that the star wars marketing team was lazy? it’s
the same movie series, why would you criticize them for using similar posters? i
would understand if the poster was similar to another movie franchise but this is
just ridiculous.

shawn says:
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:13 pm

lol i wrote my comment without even seeing Fan of JS comment. RIGHT ON DUDE!

Super Man says:
September 4th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

Maybe its just a ruse to be able to put out an even more expensive box set.

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