There are a few tricks film marketers will use to shroud bad reviews on posters - taking single words out of context, putting 5-star reviews from disreputable publications in small font - but this one is particularly shocking/ingenious.
The Guardian gave Kray twins crime drama Legend two stars in its review, but they were placed in such a way as to look like the other three were hidden behind Tom Hardy’s head.
Reviewer Benjamin Lee confirmed as much on Twitter:
Incredible way of making my two star review seem like I didn't hate the film pic.twitter.com/zvOyIxHQ3h
— Benjamin Lee (@benfraserlee) September 8, 2015
“Incredible way of making my two star review seem like I didn't hate the film,” he wrote.
While deceitful, many were simply amazed by the cunningness of the layout.
“Its so f*cking clever, I'm not even mad about the deception,” one Reddit user wrote.
Chris Morris’ Four Lions movie previously decided to just send up the marketing method with this poster:
