© Devastudios, Inc. for Paramount Pictures

One of my favorite studio branding in the history of movies has a slick new logo.

It has a wider viewpoint that includes the surrounding of the Wasatch mountain range, and appears to depict a sunrise instead of a sunset like the soon-to-be-retired logo it will replace after Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Unlike previous attempts with new logos, this new landscape actually looks better, but something caught my eye: highlights on the peaks doesn’t seem to have been rendered accurately based on the position of the sun & the levels on the three peak lines; the rendering would have been possible only if a) there’s a second light source from the left of the picture and b) the sun in the background is set a little higher.

It’s just wrong to my eyes, but then again, I don’t work in Hollywood nor I have been to Utah, so I may not be the best judge of that.

Update: Saw it on the big screen today, and I stand corrected. The lower peaks protrude higher than the curve on the left-flanking peaks, the shadows are indeed natural, though the sun appear lower than it should be. On the other hand, Brad Bird lived up to my expectation, he not only delivers but lifted the bar higher for the Mission: Impossible franchise plot-wise, the mellow-romantic drama from M:I 3 is refreshed with a less-than-perfect actions and failures which makes Hunt and his team more human. I wonder how long till we see M:I 5.