Universal StudiosEvery once in awhile in life one comes across a true evil genius. And friends, we've found our next culprit: The team behind Tom Hardy's new movie Legend.
They've gone ahead and manipulated the truth for their own gain—that's right, they lied—in a way that is so brazen and ballsy it can only be described as genius. Evil genius.
What they did, exactly, is fake a four-star review. The guts! The glory! The potential for sarcastic Twitter jokes! To see what we're talking about, view the above new poster for the British flick. In it you can see Hardy in all his twin glory (he plays a set of gangster brothers) pasted over a backdrop of (seemingly) glowing reviews from different press outlets. At first glance it looks great; there are so many stars! But if you look closer, you'll find that it's all an optical illusion.
That's right, The Guardian didn't actually award the flick four stars. The unwitting viewer will assume that the other two stars are simply hiding behind both of Tom's heads, but nope! That's just a measly review passed off as a good one. The poster could have gotten away with the ruse, too, if it weren't for the reviewer himself calling the bluff.
"Incredible way of making my two star review seem like I didn't hate the film," wrote The Guardian reporter Benjamin Lee on Twitter, alongside a picture of the poster in question.
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, 2015The pure, evil genius of it all! This kind of plot might typically incite an angry backlash from viewers and fans, but it's just clever and audacious that the public is simply bowing down. "For real?" wrote Twitter user @LukeWhiston in response to Lee's picture. "They Spice Girls Musicalled it right up." And @strobist replied, "Deceptive: Yes. But you have to admit that was effing brilliant."
Effing brilliant, indeed.