Research (Ancillary Products): Magazine Review 1

Background Information (Magazine Publisher)

Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media of Hamburg based Bauer Media Group. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008. It is the biggest selling film magazine in the United Kingdom and is also published in the United States, Australia, Turkey, Russia, Italy and Portugal. Empire organises the annual Empire Awards which were sponsored by Sony Ericsson, and from 2009 sponsored by Jameson.

Plot

Peter Parker struggles to balance his crime-fighting duties as Spider-Man with the demands of his normal life. Estranged from both love interest Mary Jane Watson and best friend Harry Osborn, Peter additionally discovers his Aunt May is facing eviction.

Main Image

With this being a double page spread, the main image for this takes up just over half the magazine review page, which is slightly more than what the normal size. The image stands out extremely well however, showing the protagonist. Which is in fact the main character in the film, so it makes sense for him to be there. His vibrant red colours catches your eye almost immediately when looking at the page. 

Additionally, the image looks like an mid action shot within the film itself. This is due to his body structure and the top and bottom is covered by some creature within the film, so it makes us think he is in danger and is very engaging to know more to why he is like that; making you want to watch the film. From analysing this image on the magazine review, I can see that the film reviews tend to use images in which cause engagement. As well as this, the images tend to be only a small amount shown. As maybe the more pictures shown may cause the reader to get bored and may identify the narrative and concept of the film, due to seeing pictures from the film equally them to not want to see the film itself.
The fact that it shows the main character as well, is a convention I shall use in my film review. The image in the film review tends to match the title on the same page. This adds continuity to the review page and therefore won't confuse the reader. The title and picture should be easily relatable. The use of colour is used a lot within the picture as well; the picture should have bright colours - not boring dark colours. Difficult for a horror I will find when making my review page, however I shall try to incorparte colours in which shall engage the reader prominently enough to read the whole review. The stance of the superhero shows strength and power, which links to the superhero and foreshadows the film well. The lighting within the main image is bright, and very high-key, this engages the audience again as it is an image to eye catch.

Title(s)

The title is a strong visible colour, black and is very thick so it stands out exceedingly well on the white background - using the technique of 'Standing-First', a convention I analysed
before. Just above is a red strip with many one worded reviews and star ratings. There is some great reviews such as 'Must-see' with a 5 star rating however they have also been honest and put a review saying 'Disappointing' with 2 stars. The audience will like this as they are being truthful - not all people like it. Underneath the title is a little plot with a pun to engage the younger audience. It grabs your attention to read on wards for the review, this is something I will include in my review, as it engages the reader thoroughly.  Furthermore, there is a bold sub title stating 'What's the story' which is a more in depth plot of the film. They have made sure you can see the verdict, covering it with a box and a red strip with the stars on. The verdict overall star rating was 5 stars so they have promoted this to make sure the audience are aware.

Also, they used a great sub title saying 'Scenes that will drop jaws and staple them to the multiplex carpet'. This suggests that the scenes will be so surprising and overwhelming your jaw the stay to the ground. It is a very descriptive and effective title that Is great. I need to use a sub title like this to intrigue the viewer of all ages.

Review(s)

Within the film review, they started it with a well known quote from the film, Spider-Man fans will see this and will appreciate it and will be excited to then see the film. They have used terms used with the younger generation such as  'Epic cinematography'. They kept the writing very unsophisticated so it is more relate able for the younger generation - who is most likely to read this review page.  This has shown great thought by the author of this article, as they had the target audience in thought as they were writing the review columns. As well as this, the made the columns in small chunks instead of big heaps of writing; thinking of the younger audience reading the review as well.

Layout

I really like the layout of this film review as I think it looks very professional and is divided well so it does not look overwhelming with text.  The ratings and titles are clear and bold which makes it easy for the reader to comprehend, therefore gaining valuable information without really having to exceed past skimming on this review page. If anything, this is the sort of review page that I hope mine will come out like.