After analysing the trailer for 'The Dark Knight Rises' I was intrigued to see whether the originality shown in the trailer was echoed in the poster. Naturally the poster and trailer should always match up to advertise the film in the same light, so that the same interpretation is memorable, rather than having several different confusing and conflicting interpretations. This poster clearly reflects the gritty, cinematic feel of the trailer through the colour scheme of black and white. The colour scheme can't have been too hard to choose as just about everything in the film is in either black or white. As well as this obvious reason, the black and white colour scheme also reflects the mood of the film as dark and foreboding. The mood of the poster is clearly shown by the picture to be foreboding and scary, as Batman's mask is left destroyed on the floor, with the antagonist walking away as if the battle is won. The darkness is also reflective of the main protagonist, who is obviously 'the dark knight' and so, in a way, the darkness makes it brighter, because Batman is usually active during the night. Around his broken mask there seems to be some sort of spotlight, which supports this idea, putting him forward as the last hope. Obviously there is a practical reason for this, which is that the mask wouldn't be seen if the whole poster was engulfed in darkness, but I also think that it is symbolic.
There seems to be some sort of white substance falling down over the scene presented, and this could either be snow, or ash. It seems to look more like snow as it falls, and as the ending takes place in the snow this would be an obvious conclusion to come to. If it were snow then it makes the scene look a lot colder and less welcoming. Snow has connotations of freezing and harsh conditions - conditions that an audience want to see the Dark Knight rise up out of. It can look beautiful when it has settled, but here it hasn't settled and just a few flakes are resting on the ground, making it seem icy, which is much less pleasant. The majority of the 'snow' seems to be settling around the broken mask, which makes it seem as if it has been there for a while and the legend of Batman has long since sunk into legend - which is just how the film starts. The other possibility is that the white substance is ash, and there is a very strong argument for this, as Bane says at one point 'When Gotham is ashes then I will allow you to die'. This line was used multiple times in the advertising campaign and in many of the trailers, so was already well known before the film came out. If the white substance was presumed to be ashes, then that points to Gotham being 'ashes', meaning Batman would die soon after, which he appears to have done in the picture on this poster. Even if this line wasn't known, then ashes still have negative and scary connotations. With Bane walking away from the broken mask, the obvious culprit is him destroying something to create the ashes and because his face is not seen, the viewer is left wondering who he is that can cause so much destruction.
The main feature of the poster is, of course, the destroyed Batman mask and Bane walking away from it. This is a very powerful image, as Batman seems destroyed and the antagonist the winner, which is not at all what people would expect from a conventional superhero movie. The picture leaves many enigmas such as whether Batman has been defeated, who the man walking away is, what has happened previously and most importantly what will happen next. To make it even more daunting, the text towards the top of the poster reads 'The Legend Ends'. This could simply be interpreted that the trilogy is ending, but could also imply that Batman is going to die or be destroyed. The poster points to the latter of these possibilities, so many people would be prompted to see the film to see whether he actually dies. The trailer also hints at this possibility, so the whole marketing campaign does an admirable job of keeping all possibilities open. Strangely, the font for 'The Legend Ends' seems to actually be bigger than the font of the title, which is almost obscured at the bottom of the page. The poster seems to be very brave in presuming that the viewer would guess that it is the next Batman film, however this is a risky tactic, and I'm not sure that it is the best one. The title should be far more obvious so that it can be another way of grabbing a viewer's attention. It would have to be a very large poster for anyone to be able to read it. The only place where this would work would be as a poster sold to the general public that they can hang up in their homes. The poster itself is very artistic, so it would work well in this context, and the owner wouldn't need to have the title very large as they already know what the film is, and can tell anyone who asks. So despite how well made it is, the lack of a large title makes it only usable in certain contexts, and not necessarily the poster on which an advertising campaign can be built.