I received my poster today from Hallucination Generation and it was packaged very safe, securely, and professionally and the poster was undamaged. Thank you very much for that.
It is a beautiful poster and I am extremely pleased with it. When I first unrolled it my first reaction was that it had to be a legitimate studio issue. It is exactly 27x40" and double sided and the back aligns perfectly and the text (at a glance) appears to be pretty crisp. However, upon closer examination of the poster I began to have my doubts about its authenticity. Here's why:
The overall softness of the pixels in the image on fine details leaves a somewhat jagged stair-stepping effect. It's really evident in the Joker's hair strands and along the edges of buildings and the edge of his coat. I know the image depicts a lot of flying debris around the character but it's the pixels and their softness that have me question the resolution of the poster. To be fair, I examined it closely against my Style C TDK (Batpod) poster and the pixels in that image are also pretty soft with lots of flying debris so I'd say that the overall graininess of the image was by design. It's just that they are a bit softer and not as fine on the Joker one.
Next I compared the text and logos. The Warner Logo is a little softer (and slightly different) on the Joker one compared to the Batpod one-sheet and my other TDK one-sheets. Also the TM on The Dark Knight logo is a little softer. It's VERY VERY close on the Dark Knight logo, but some of the gray embossed highlight detail is lost on the Joker poster logo and there is some noticeable posterization and blue gradient color banding on the Dark Knight logo compared to my other TDK one-sheets. It also doesn't have the "A film by Christopher Nolan" text above the title like the other posters do. The other thing that struck me was the absence of credits at the bottom, only the date 'July 18' and studio copyrights similar to the "Wilding" poster. My other two advance posters have no date and say "Summer 2008."
(Batpod style 'C' logo first, Joker poster logo second)
Also the texture of the paper. It's VERY close to my other official Dark Knight double sided posters, but not 100% exact. It's slightly off in texture by comparison. It's so close though that if I hadn't pulled out the other posters to compare it against I probably would not have really noticed it.
So my general conclusion is that this has to be in all likelihood a reproduction, albeit a VERY VERY good one. One of the better ones I've seen. I just can't say with absolute certainty that it is an original and I doubt that anyone aside from someone from the studio who knows the history of the marketing campaign and posters that were actually printed could verify its authenticity either though I can see why the guy from Cinemasterpieces raised an eyebrow but I am not personally insulted by it like he was. Yes, he sells only authentic posters which I can understand but I also don't understand the general thumbing the nose attitude that was taken toward HG when all he wanted was an expert opinion on its authenticity and his questions professionally answered.
Again, I am VERY VERY happy with the poster overall. Since this has never been officially released as a one-sheet I am happy to have it in my collection for the uniqueness of the artwork alone. If you are a fan and want to add this poster to your collection I highly recommend buying it from HG. It's obvious his poster is better quality than the cropped one sold by Moviegoods and without the excess contrast that one has. And as long as HG continues to list it under reproductions and states that even he is unsure of its authenticity then he is at least being honest and I don't see a problem as long as the buyer can make an informed decision.
Again, thanks HG for your professionalism and for the poster. I am pleased to own it and it has been a pleasure doing business.
