Film review analysis 2

My previous review was from the May issue of Empire magazine. Since this issue the film reviews have been presented in a new layout. I wanted to analyse both layouts to see how greatly they differ and to determine which I prefer. It is also good to see the progression in the presentation of film reviews in one magazine as I can identify discontinued features.

Film review 2

Magazine: Empire
Issue: November 2012
Film: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Layout 

- The image takes up a large proportion of the page. It is the first thing the reader will see.

- The title is the largest sized text on the page hence will be the first thing read by the audience. 

- A comment underneath the title. Sometimes a play on words but in this case an opinion on the film "A magical master piece"

- A box containing key information about the film. It includes: a release date, the certificate, the director, the leading cast members, the running time and a brief summary of the plot. 

-  A small summary leaving an impression of the film on the reader.

- A star rating out of five. 

- Again, the bulk of the page is the article. 

- The arrow at the top of the page is the title of the segment if the magazine. 

-The lower arrow is underneath the text. Both arrows are a recurring feature across all of the reviews in the magazine

                                                                        - The magazines website address.
                                                                                                                                                   - Above the title just under the arrow is a comment: "Springsteen pun #72: Barn in the USA"

The colour theme of this article is simply blue. The text is framed with lines similar to the previous review. 

Content 

The first paragraph only consists of two sentences and is general praise towards the film. This is in contrast to the lengthy paragraph at the start of review of The Hunger Games. The second and third paragraphs briefly introduce the setting of the story and compare it to existing films. The article talks about the underlying depth of the characters and continues to talk about the plot.

The fourth paragraph begins to talk about the performance of the two main actors. Starting with the word 'key' signals just how this paragraph is going to go.  The article throws praise at them focusing on their acting highlights of the film. Language such as 'astonishingly' and 'sink effortlessly' display to what extent the writer is praising the film.

The article returns to the plot in the fifth paragraph focusing on a different aspect explaining a separate narrative strand. It ends with a comment on the nature of Hollywood film and how Beasts of the Southern Wild subverts it. The article ends with more general praise poetically put. The main character is once again praised and now her role in the film is summarised  .

Lexis

There isn't much to say here that I haven't said all ready either on this page or in the previous post. The lexis is very similar between this and the last review: very complimentary. It is trying to describe everything created on the screen using music, cinematography, lighting, actors and so on but just through the power of words. Hence the figurative language. The language is colloquial as before. Popular culture references are included to dis-spell any thoughts the author didn't intend to create - this is done in a humorous way: "This isn't sentimental, Sting-saves-the-rainforest stuff, though.".

My thoughts

I am split about this one. I don't particularly like the review, however I now want to go and see this film. So, it preformed it's function. I definitely see how the use of language is implemented and this is deffinately something to think carefully about in my film. Regarding the layout it is quite different to the previous artile and I think I like the former. However, this article is more recent and up to date. With media products evolving at the exponential rate that they do it is important to keep up with the most recent style. Therefore I think this is more of the style I will be aiming for.