Film Magazine Reviews - Stormbreaker - Mohammed

http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/stormbreaker 



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.

http://movies.sky.com/review/stormbreaker

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.

http://www.ukscreen.com/filmreview/0/304

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.

Textual Analysis - Mohammed Hussain (Stormbreaker)

Film title : Stormbreaker

Date of release : 21.06.2006 (UK)

Director: Geoffrey Sax

Writer: Anthony Horowitz

Genre : Action

Sub-Genre: Thriller , Family, Adventure

Main Cast: Ewan McGregor (Ian Rider), Alex Pettyfer (Alex Rider), Bill Nighy (Alan Blunt) , Damian Lewis (Yassen Gregrovich), Sara Bolger (Sabina Pleasure) , Missi Pyle (Nadia Vole) , Mickey Rourke (Darrius Sayle) ,

Alex Rider thinks he is a normal school boy, until his uncle is killed. He discovers that his uncle was actually spy on a mission, when he was killed. Alex is recruited by Alan Blunt to continue the mission. He is sent to Cornwall to investigate a new computer system, which Darrius Sayle has created. He plans to give the new computer systems to every school in the country, but Mr. Blunt has other ideas and Alex must find out what it is.

I am going to apply Todor'vs equililbrium model. The equilibrium of Stormbreaker is that Alex Rider is a 14 year old school boy who lives with his uncle and carer. His uncle is usually away from home. The euilibruim is disprupted by the death of Alex's uncle. In this disruption subsequently, Alex discovers the true nature of his uncle who was actually a spy. Therefore he has to seek revenge for his uncle. The new-equialibrium in this movie is Alex's investigation of a computer system which is bugged and linked to the killer of his uncle. Alex evemtually seeks revenge as he stops the world from catching the computer virus. The man who created the computer system tries to kill Alex, however the same man who assasinated his uncle saves him in the end and shoots the owner instead.

The man who murdered Alex's uncle, yet saved him in the end..

Alex Rider on a mission..

I am going to apply Levi Strauss 'binary opposition'.  What this means is general opposittes for example, our understanding of the word 'villain'  depends on the difference between that and its oppossite which is 'hero'. The way these binary oppositions work in Stormbreaker are quite evident. For example, Alex is a schoolboy, yet a secret agent. These two clash as usually it is someone who has been well taught and past the age of youth education who is a secret agent. The woman who is the guardian of Alex after his uncle dies is called 'Jack'. In British society, it is widely recognized that Jack is a masculine name, yet his guardian is a woman. There is of course a hero in the film aswell as a villian.

The film is quite typical of its genres. In a film where a young child is the hero, it is quite usual that the child does not die. After the death of his uncle, Alex is of course traumatised yet encounters things he never imagined. The training he had recieved from a young age and the bilingual speaking talents he had been taught all came to use in the end as Alex began to realise why his uncle taught him these things. His body language shows he is new to the world of secret agents to begin with, but as Alex further develops through the movie his body language changes. His costume is also quite typical. At school he wears a school uniform and whilst at work with secret agents a leather jacket, a backpack to carry gadjects and sometimes vehicles such as a quadbike. Alex starts off with a bike, an asset to many teenagers.

The extent to wich the storyline is typical to is genre is quite evident. Alex does eventually save the world as expected, regardless of the twist at the end where the same man who killed his uncle, saves Alex as he owed him the favour. Hero's face many ups and downs in the quest for victory and so did Alex as he was held hostage yet eventually broke free. For example, our understanding of the word 'coward' surely depends on the difference between that word and its opposing idea, that of a 'hero' (and to  complicate matters further, a moment's thought should alert you to the fact that interpreting words such as 'hero' and 'coward' is itself much more to do with what our society or culture attributes to such words than any meaning the words themselves might actually contain