The Expendables magazine cover analysis

The front cover I am analysising is the Empire magazine cover for The Expendables featuring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and Jet Li. The front cover features all three of these actors looking menacing, with Stallone smoking a cigar and Li holding a gun. This symbolisation is the genre indicator for the film and also establishes the main characters for the film. The title of the film "The Expendables" is the largest font on the cover (excluding the magazine title) and is white which allows it to stand out from the background. The is a juxtaposition because they are holding weapons yet the white of the writing symbolises safety and calmness meaning they may be the hero's in the film. Behind the main picture of the actors is an explosion, this is another genre indicator and subliminally shows it is going to be an explosive film. The font at the top of the cover reads - "THE ULTIMATE ACTION SPECIAL", this automatically lets the reader know what kind of issue of the magazine it is going to be and also what genre the film is going to be. The tagline above the title of the film reads "We're gunna smoke the A-Team!" this is in reference to another film in that genre and also ties into the picture as Stallone is smoking a cigar. The background picture also gives a clue of where it is going to be set as you can see jungle in the background below the fire. At the bottom there is smaller pictures depicting what else will be in this months issue of the magazine, it features four pictures all at an angle to draw the readers attention and also to suggest that they are not all linear storylines. At the very bottom there is a caption that reads "WORLD EXCLUSIVE! CAPTAIN AMERICA THE PLANET'S FIRST INTERVIEW!, this excites the readers because it allows them a world exclusive that only this magazine features and allows them to be one of the first to read about it. The bottom segment of the page has different font and colouring to distinguish it from the main feature of the magazine, this helps to not draw too much attention away from the main headline but because it is different attracts the readers eye to find out more.