Summer Movies: The 10 Best Posters -- and Why!

The summer movie onslaught is right around the corner, and Hollywood is working overtime to get audiences in theaters for their top offerings. The first shot fired is always the classic movie poster, and we've rounded up the Top 10 designs of the summer season (so far!) -- and the reasons why they qualify as cool.

Why It's Cool: There's little argument that Angelina Jolie is one of Hollywood's all-time classic beauties. But as the villainous Maleficent in a tale of the events that hardened her heart and drove her to curse young Princess Aurora, Angelina manages to be both terrifying, demonic -- and disturbingly alluring -- in this teaser poster. 

Release Date: May 30, 2014

Why It's Cool: In a world of celebrity faces unimaginatively placed against the psychologically alluring contrast of orange and blue, it's refreshing to see a broader spectrum of art, action and colors that tell the exact story you expect to see when you plunk down money for your ticket: Planes with personality rushing into the face of danger for a noble cause. Then again, the planes here are all orange, set against a blue sky. Duped again!

Release Date: July 18, 2014

Why It's Cool: Director Richard Linklater can do no wrong in our book, and with his latest film, he's delivered his own take on Michael Apted's Up documentary series; filmed intermittently over the course of more than a decade, Boyhood follows the literal growth, transformation and maturation of a family, from childhood to adulthood, and the poster perfectly captures the youthful daydream whimsy of the premise.

Release Date: June 13, 2014

Why It's Cool: Symmetry is an important factor in many an image, and the poster for The Fault In Our Stars has it in spades, with co-stars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort snuggled perfectly together like yin and yang. A love story with a heart-wrenching twist, the poster shows clearly whose life will be turned upside down in this relationship.

Release Date: June 6, 2014

Why It's Cool: The Guardians of the Galaxy are cool and they don't give a rat's ass what anyone thinks of them. The detached aloofness of Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is nicely demonstrated in this very blue teaser poster that is clearly the calm before the storm.

Release Date: August 1, 2014

Why It's Cool: For those still smarting from Roland Emmerich's painful 1998 offering, a brand-new Godzilla is coming, and the multiple teaser posters for the film deliver a solid glimpse at the scope of the towering new star's destruction as its massive tail topples towers in the middle of a fiery metropolis. Compared to the last effort, this one looks good.

Release Date: May 16, 2014

Why It's Cool: Are we allowed to show two Godzilla posters? This one rocks because, yet again, we get a taste of the destruction and a tease of the title star's massive physique. But there's the added value of fearless paratroopers skydiving into the fray, showing the kind of (feeble?) action the human element will be taking in an attempt to defeat the beast. And yeah, it just looks plain cool.

Release Date: May 16, 2014

Why It's Cool: What's nice about the new The Amazing Spider-Man 2 posters in general is that they're not afraid to show their title hero in the light of day, full of color. After the brooding darkness of The Dark Knight Trilogy, Man of Steel and the like, it's refreshing to see the promise of good old-fashioned superhero action that we can actually see clearly on the poster in broad daylight. Upside down or right-side up...

Release Date: May 2, 2014

Why It's Cool: Poised for intergalactic action, Channing Tatum rocks his Vulcan-like ears as a warrior assassin sent to Earth to track down MIla Kunis' lowly janitor -- who could actually be next in line to be the Universe's next Queen. The character could border on the silly, but the brooding Channing owns it, arm-tats and all.

Release Date: July 18, 2014

Why It's Cool: All hail Caesar! The talking ape of the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise is back and in charge in the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and this time it's going to be an all-out war with the humans to determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species. How do we know all that? Because Caesar's sporting some badass war paint.  

Release Date: July 11, 2014

Why It's Cool: Just like when you see yourself reflected infinitely in double mirrors, this poster for The Signal capitalizes on that concept with the added dread of an endless supply of anonymous, white-suited specters in the story of students tracking a hacker in the desert who find themselves captive and caught up in a much larger plot.

Release Date: June 13, 2014