'Salt' Magazine Review

The two page film magazine review on SALT fulfils its purpose of informing the people about the film and highlighting the productions selling points and intriguing the readers into watching it. The first thing which catches the eye immediately is the colossal image of Angelina Jolie in action invading the two pages. This was done purposely because of Angelina jolie’s renowned reputation and immediately raises awareness and interest for the film; some readers may even go and watch the film just because they are fans of Angelina Jolie. This is a form of celebrity endorsement however it is more effective in this case because the celebrity Angelina Jolie is part of the production and the actual protagonist in the film. Another smaller image to the left shows her two co-characters (Liev shriber and Chiwetel ejiofor) that are also globally recognised as successful actors and raise awareness for the film in a similar way. This has purposely been done to highlight the influential and extraordinary cast within the film and this is also an appealing factor to readers. Another unique element of this magazine review which stood out was the statement in which contempary action films are used; ‘Bourne ultimatum meets no way out’ to emphasise this film’s elite and action packed storyline. The word SALT is in bold capital letters and thus reminds the reader of the films name, this name is also memorable due to its length and peoples familiarity with it (everyone is aware of the word salt unlike a film name such as ‘the matrix’). On the left of this is a yellow strip of colour which brings our attention to some essential information such as the release date, the certificate, the director, the duration of the film and the plot. These are all important aspects of any production and USP’s (unique selling points) which encourage the reader to go view the film because they now know more about it. If for instance the plot sounds action packed and the film is a decent length then people will look to go view it in their spare time whereas if the film is too long they may not have time to or if it is too short they may not feel they are getting enough for their money. At the top there are a range of star ratings from 1-5 which reflect what the magazine thought about the film overall. This particular film received a 5 star ‘UNMISSABLE’ rating, the stars are coloured in an eye catchy strong red and this unmissable suggests to the reader it cannot be missed. Finally the title ‘spoiler alert’ to the top left suggests the readers are privileged to have read this review and that they are being given a gift of information about the film. All in all this magazine review is very effective in the way it endorses the film , this is achieved through the large images of famous actors , the film rating as well as the actual content of the review which gives us a privileged insight. With this being said I think the colours (blue and yellow) lacked relevance and did not reflect the films serious action/thriller genre. This may have been done however to keep the empire magazine reviews coherent so people familiarise with them rather than the film so it is understandable.