Film review page analysis 'Avatar'

I have also chosen to analyse this movie review page, as I found it very visually interesting. I think the best and most effective movie review pages are visually exciting and colourful, with the text left sharp, witty and often to the point to maintain reader interest.

Most of this review page is predominately images, which at a glance inform the reader which film the review is for, allowing a person quickly flicking through a magazine to see that this is a review page for 'Avatar'. The images chosen depict interesting and exciting images from the movie, without being spoilers as the images are abbreviated quick glimpses and not shown in the order they appear during the film, allowing people who have seen the film to reminisce about the narrative peaks and favorite parts, thus forming their own opinions immediately before reading the actual review meaning they can compare their own thoughts to those of the writer so the piece is much more stimulating. For people who haven't seen the film a sense of suspense and hype is created, as the film is essentially being advertised to them, and through the use of these appealing images people are more likely to want to go and view the film. The biggest image of the two main characters, the 'avatars' immediately portrays the extravagance and quality of the film, as through this close-up we can see the incredible digital detail on the characters faces, an example of what can be expected throughout the rest of the film and its high standard. These images are reflecting the film in a positive way before the actual text has even been read.

The colour scheme has been carefully selected in order to create the most striking effect. Blue and orange, the predominate colour scheme, are known as 'complimentory colours', along with other combinations such as yellow and purple, red and green. Complimentory colours are colours found opposite on the colour wheel that contrast each other in the most extreme way possible, making each other appear more active and vibrant. The creator of the page has deliberately chosen orange next to the blue avatars in order to really highlight and emphasise the characters and titles, making the images really vibrant and the titles and text box stand out, informing the reader of the basics, the movie title, images associated with it and whats written in the other orange text box, further information on the film. Below is a picture of the colour wheel with the opposites used in this image highlighted. I have chosen to include this because this is something I am going to carefully consider when designing my film poster, and being aware of the colour opposites is something I feel will help me create a striking effect.

The actual fonts used on the page are kept very basic, sans-serif with soft rounded edges for ease of reading. I believe the designer has chosen basic font because its not the main focus of the review page, instead the copy is used as more of a background information and referrence. This choice also reflects the main selling point of avatar; striking visual effects where the narrative although good is not as extraordinary. Ease of reading means that those who are attracted to visual, interesting articles won't find this page too much of a chore to read because its kept brief, letting the images speak for themselves.

Layout
The predominate spread of images is well presented, each one defined by a black border that means the audience eye is drawn to each one indivudally, rather than confusion of looking at it as montage. The most important image is situated in the top right corner of the page, as all the text boxes are spilt up by images, representing the balance of visual effect and narrative within the film itself, as each part of the narrative contains stunning visual effects. A black border is placed around the whole image, collecting the text boxes and images together as almost a collage, making the whole page easier to read and examine because its clearly defined also making it look much more professional and presentable.