Magazine Influence: Iron Man 2

We chose this edition of Empire magazine to use as our influence because it creates an intense atmosphere that we would like to portray.

The main image on the posters is simply just what could be perceived as a head on shot, with no angles or anything being used, just the character fully facing the reader. The way he is looking at the reader could perhaps represent how he wants to entice them in and read more on the magazine. The majority of the 'man' is shown in the image, with the main focus being on his upper body. The image clearly dominates the magazine cover with a grey and blur colour theme occurring in the other aspects of the cover such as the title, tagline, features etc, but the main image uses such different colours which is why it is so eye catching to begin with. The overall feel of the cover is fairly dark, perhaps to represent an action/thriller film that Iron Man 2 is. The use of the lightning effect on the title again, links into the genre of the film possibly representing the darkness within the film.

The use of only one image is done well as it clearly shows Iron Man's dominance and power he may hold over other characters in the film. The way in which his head is tilting down almost looking at the reader again represents his power and the way he possibly looks down over other people.

The cover strongly focuses on the film Iron Man 2 that is being promoted by the image of the main character. It gives the audience a clear indication of what film it is promoting and also without the film title it will be clear as to what the film is. I really liked the use of the other teasers at the bottom of the page and the idea that the images used are not the usual film poster that audiences will recognise, but that they are infact still shots taken from the film itself. This shows the action in the films and also the main characters which will appeal to the audience because they will be the main factor that someone will remember. There is also a small tagline for each teaser which has been shown which i personally film is too much because it takes away the main action from the main film they are trying to promote. However, they are not too overpowering and do not stand out as much as the main film's tagline should. The Iron Man 2 tagline is clearly highlighted as more important because of the text book around it and the boldness and capital letters for the font.


The colours used for this cover is red, white and blue, typical colours that are used for action films perhaps leaning to the fact it is aimed more at men as it is known as a heavy action type film and just from the layout if the cover, the genre is clear mainly due to action aspects such as the 'lightning' effect around parts of the text. I think the target audience would be for boys ages 14 to around 20 as the sense of power of the Iron Man simply jumps out at the reader, something which many teenage boys will be interested in as well as all the action that takes place throughout the film as from just the effects such as the lightning one used on the cover, it is clear that this is an incredibly action packed film.





The lead article on the cover, of course being Iron Man 2 is not just promoted by the image. It is also promoted by the use of the ‘First Look’ text on the left hand side of the cover. ‘All hail the king of 2010’ promoted the film incredibly well as it suggests it is going to be a massive success, the use of ‘King’ is of course such an important character throughout many films and it simply reinforces just how important/domineering this character is.

The use of a short, but powerful tagline also works incredibly well as it is simply a set of words that people will remember- ‘New suit. New enemies. Same attitudes. With the use of alliteration between the first two sentences, its shows how the new film will be exciting as new aspects will be discovered. Then the last sentence- ‘Same attitudes’ represents the fact that Iron Man 2 is still the dominant character and shows an instant link between the first and second film- If people have already seen the first film, then they can instantly relate back to it, as well as discovering new things abut the current film.

Overall each aspect of the cover such as the main image, insight into other films and the 'lightning' effect show that this issue of Empire magazine is clearly based on the action genre. From the use of an overall dark effect it shows that what's inside the magazine will appeal to those who love action type films. I think the cover is done really well and all the aspects compliment each other and it is certainly a cover that would stand out to me when perhaps seeing it in the shops.