Thursday 28 October 2010

Film Magazine Reviews - Stormbreaker - Mohammed




This review was found on the IMDB ( Internet Movie Database ) , by Total film. The writer is
not stated in this particular review. The review was published on the 21st of July 2006, which is
on the same date as the films actual release. The link to the website is above with a screenshot
of the review.

The article is obviously written by an older person focusing on young teenagers as he adresses
the reader as  ' kids '. Yet some could say this could be adressed to yong kids, yet this is
contradicted by the use of language. The writer uses a lot of humor in the writing for example
when he writes that "There’s a lot to consider: Rider has the looks, but Potter bests him on
brains – well, at least when Hermione is around". One of the Harry Potter series, another film
released around the same time quite evidently is compared to Stormbreaker. If not the film,
then the two protagonists anyway. It seems the writers focuses on the teenage buzz going
around at the time. However , he does seem a little biasd towards Alex Pettyfer (Alex Rider)
ahead of Danielle Radcliffe (Harry Potter) when he compares the acting as "Radcliffe puts his
gawky little heart and soul into it" whereas about Alex he says "Pettyfer’s poise is sturdier".
In this review, the writer focuses mainly on the acting of the character rather than the
narratives.

In terms of layout, the review looks more or less like a newspaper article in some sence as the
title is above, with the date below. However the article is not written in columns so it is evident
that it is an internet based article. The logo of a 3 star rating is clearly visible at the top as they
have rated the film with 3 stars. That is average. I would say the font is very simple and boring
yet this is in contrast to the humorous language used in the article. There are even links to
social networking sites on the right hand side, probably for a teenage audience.





This review was found as a branching link from the IMDB website. The link leads to the Sky Movies HD website, and there are no evident dates of publication.

Like the previous article, this article also has a humorous sense to it e.g when the writer describes Alex Rider as ' Its a James Bond with bum fluff'. There is also evidence that this is a very finely written review as some of the vocabulary is concise. The sentence structure is that they are short yet contain a lot of words which may be hard to understand. For example , ' His escapades are equally outlandish '. The writer has packed formal English with colloquial terms as well, e.g 'Any family wheez '. 

In this review the writer focuses on the storyline of the film and basically tells the story throughout the review. Although the writer does compare to real life issues. The writer also makes fun out of former prime minister, Tony Blair so there is probably politics involved.

Layout is quite evident on this review. The writing is white and the background is different shades of blue. The writing is not fully visible and requires a lot of scrolling where it doesn't stand out at all. For this reason I believe the designing is poor.  There are tabs at the top of the review linking to other functions of the website yet no images relating to the review.

There are also no columns on the review the paragraphs are very short, mostly 2 lines each. Again the font and writing is quite boring. In this review the film has also been given a 3 star rating and this is visible at the top of the review.





This final article is from the UK SCREEN website, another branching website from the IMDB. It was written and published by Jason Korsner on the 23rd of July 2006.

The language in this article is quite simple e.g ' Fourteen year old Alex comes home to find his boring uncle Ian has been killed'. This is continued throughout the whole review more or less there is never much concise vocabulary and it is probably written for a much younger audience. The writer uses rhetorical questions as sub-heading such as ' What's it like' or 'Who is it by' and then answers those questions very quickly. This shows the reader that it is not directly to them, rather already pre-answered. The piece of writing is very descriptive too as the writer uses adjectives like ' audacious , loud and proud ' to describe the film.

The review talks more about the elements of the film including the gadgets e.g the motorbikes , quad bikes, helicopters and other things which make the film exciting. In comparison to the other reviews, all talk mostly about the elements and content of the film and also focus on the storyline rather than the narrative.

Regarding the layout, this review is by far the simplest. It is black writing on a white background and couldn't get any more boring.  This review gives the film 2 and a half stars which is lower than the other two yet focuses more on the film and gives more detail. It even includes the cast.
I think it is the most sophisticated and useful review out of the 3.






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