It was only a matter of time before Elon Musk got his own documentary, but sadly for him, this ain't no puff piece. The aptly named 'Musk' will tell the story of the billionaire businessman's rise to power and subsequent plunge into right-wing politics, and a documentary this immense needs an iconic poster, right? Well, I'm not sure they got the memo.
I'd argue there's no strict formula for creating the best movie posters, but there certainly needs to be a little curation to make a memorable design. With all the charm of early 2000s clip art, it's safe to say that the new Musk poster is iconic (albeit for all the wrong reasons).
Leaning heavily on typography, the Musk poster features a bold font filled with what appears to be a low-res explosion graphic. Be it the poster's barren design or the strange, warped letters of the film's title, the design has a distinctly amateurish feel that doesn't quite match the grandeur of the documentary’s 4-hour runtime (be thankful it was reduced from the reported 6-hour director's cut).
"This poster has Tropic Thunder fake movie vibes," one Redditor wrote. "It looks like the kind of shit I used to do back in school for media studies," another wrote, while one commenter added, "Thankfully great art direction isn't anything I'm really looking to find from this documentary because this poster is horrible." Ouch.
I'd like to give the Musk poster the benefit of the doubt – surely the low-res look and awful font scaling are a conscious choice to appear countercultural and edgy? Then again, given its mammoth runtime, I'm unsure whether self-awareness was a factor in production.
For more poster design news, check out this ridiculous film poster that made me wish movies would get silly again or take a look at why horror movie poster design has a problem.
