Existing Double Page Film Review Analyses

This review page is for Pirates of the Caribbean: The World’s End (2007) from Total Film.

The layout of the page shows a nearly A4 sized image, in this case an action shot from the film itself, with the written review taking up roughly half an A4 page in the bottom left corner. This makes the words to image ratio almost equal and therefore makes the overall spread more attractive to the audience. Along with these two main features, we also have a contents banner for the section along the top of the pages, a large title, not for Pirates of the Caribbean specifically, but for the sequence of film review articles in the magazine, along with a guide to the star ratings, the title for this review (the film title), the film’s star rating and very brief informal synopsis, a rectangular box on top of the image (containing text and other images) which has similar films to the one the review is about, a page number and website address in the bottom corners and finally some quotes and a graph within the review text itself to make this body of text look more appealing. This layout I think works really well in making the whole spread look appealing, with not too much text and a good balance of images (and image size). I also think the rating system and the informality of the article makes reading it much more fun, as well as being seriously taken and factual.

The colour palette for the spread is white, black, red, and yellow which make the article clear and easily accessible, but it still looks interesting at the same time. The positioning of the colour use is balanced, not having too much of a bright colour in one place but none in another, and this makes the article, overall, appealing to look at. For example, yellow is used along the top of the spread (in the banner), in the bottom left corner and in the bottom right corner. This doesn’t make any part of the article too bright, or too unclear to read, especially as the yellow is used on a black background in an inversion to further the clarity and not make the yellow text hard to read. Furthermore, the image chosen complies with the colour palette so it fits the article and doesn’t look out-of-place.

The typography used in the article is all very clear and modern, with very little change in font type throughout. The masthead of the page (the film review section title) and the review title (“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”) both share the same typography, a large, bold, cinematic font that is used in black for clarity and to stand out against the rest of the article (using this on white creates an inversion which furthers this clarity and boldness). The font used for the subtitles is very similar to the masthead font, but smaller and less bold, so it’s still clear and has an impact, but smaller and makes the reader have to take some time to look at the article to take in what it says. This draws the reader in to read the rest of the review, which uses again, a similar but smaller font, in black, which is easy to read, and in places in bold so that certain parts of the article are emphasised and it adds depth to the article so it doesn’t all look exactly the same and boring.

The lexis used is mostly quite informal, opinionated and humourous, talking to the reader like a friend, which makes the whole article seem more friendly and inviting. The title of the review series is called “Screen: new movies in order of merit” which indicates that this magazine is very interested in films and therefore reviews lots of them, allowing a variety of film reviews for the reader to choose (listed in the banner at the top of this page), and also the rating system that goes with this allows the reader to find and watch the best received films at the time.  The informal synopsis for the review says “Captain Jack delivers spectacle. And talk. Lots of talk.” and this sets the tone for the article, indicating the general opinion of the film from the start.

In terms of representation, both of the main characters in the image, and all the background characters, are adult males, and so this doesn't represent the female audience, indicating that the target audience is predominantly males because of the action/adventure genre. 

Overall, this film review article is modern, concise and attractive to the reader, without overcrowding or too much text compared to images. This makes the spread more likely to draw in the reader to read the whole article.  

My second double page film review analysis is of a review for Avatar (2009). 

The style of this spread in comparison to the first one is very different, focusing on imagery in the form of action shots from the film with minimal text. However, the layout is very similar in that it has the main body of text in the same place (the bottom left corner), the main image on the right and a text box in the bottom right corner. Furthermore, the title of the spread "AVATAR" is in the same place as on the previous spread. In addition to this, there are several smaller images that take up the rest of the room on the spread and page numbers in the bottom corners. 

The main article has a black background, which differs from the previous one that had a completely white background. This means that instead of black text on a white background like before, this has white text on a black background and this connotes the genre of the film, which is sci-fi, by having a futuristic look to the main body of text. Along with the black and white, the rest of the colour palette is red and yellow, like before, but with blue added from the images. This indicates that this colour palette of black, white, red and yellow is a common convention of film reviews  and therefore I should reciprocate this in my own practical production. 

The typography used on this spread is quite different than on the previous one because all of the text is rounded and this gives a much less formal and less professional looking style to the article which connotes that the audience for the article is younger readers. This style of font stays constant across the whole of the spread, meaning there are no obvious font changes that make the page look interesting too look at. 

In terms of the lexis, in the top left and right corners the subtitle for the spread is displayed, reading "Film of the Month" which, despite the typography, tells us that this spread is serious and that the review speaks highly of the film, enough for it to be superior against all of film released in that month. This review also has the release date of 17th December and "certificate TBA" which tells the reader which, if the rating had been announced, would be helpful in telling the reader what content could be expected from the film, and whether it's worth a family trip to the cinema. From the article to the fact bar, it is clear that this article takes a much more serious tone through text than the previous one, making it seem more reliable and factual rather than opinionated, which it is. 

On this spread, unlike before, there is a large image of both a male and a female Avatar, and therefore both genders are represented, indicating that the target audience, at least for this article, is both males and females, and not just males. 

Overall, although fundamentally similar, this review spread is very different from the first one, with a different tone set from the off, making it darker and more serious than the previous one, and the tone of the text furthers this seriousness, though the let down of the article is with the lack of variety when it comes to typography, which is something I will have to focus on in my own production.