Films, Films and More Films (empireonline.co.uk)

Member Name: DixieChick101

Product:	empireonline.co.uk
Date:	06/10/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing site, everything you want to know about films

Disadvantages: the site is too busy.

As you probably already know, I am a big movie buff. It mainly comes from the fact that my dream job is to be a director or to do something within the film industry, however it has been this way for me for years now. I love everything and anything to do with film.

When I found Empire magazine last year, I knew I found something perfect for my love of film. I quickly gave up my Sugar Magazine and Bliss Magazine buying habits and spent my money on the Empire Magazine as well. I myself prefer it in a magazine, but I'm sure some of you won't want to pay the £4 or so it costs for the magazine, but still want to know all about the new films out. Well if this is you, then it's a must that you check out EmpireOnline.com.

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The Website
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When you come to the homepage, you might find yourself going 'I'll never find anything on this site'. Where as that is true in some cases, it is a very well designed website, despite the fact that it goes against everything I learnt in college. One of the things my teacher hammered into us was the fact that the website shouldn't be too busy. Create more links if you need to include more information; don't cram it all onto one page. For most web pages you will find that they follow this website etiquette, this website doesn't however. It attempts to put every little piece of information and links on the first page of the website.

Even before you scroll down to look at the rest of the page, you'll find yourself in awe at how much they have crammed into a small space. We were always told that too much information in one place looses the audience's attention. I have to say, most of the information on this page does look quite interesting and despite being crammed, it doesn't lose anything, you still know what you're looking at. I think it could be a problem for some, and sometimes when I'm searching just for one thing on the home page, looking through all of this information can get very annoying.

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Home Page
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Literally, you can all the information you want from this home page. It is quite amazing at how much they have managed to cram onto the page. The main thing your eye always gets pulled towards is the current highlights section. It is usually a load of still pictures in a loop, showing you the highlights of the website. At the moment, they are giving you a link to Terry Gilliam Q&A, and also The Story of Toy Story, which talks about how CG classics were born.

Empire is almost famous for its 'polls', and at the moment (6th October 2009), you are able to vote for your favourite icons of the decade. They do one of these every few months and it's always fun to see the poll finished at the end and see what people like you think is the icon of the decade.

At the moment, they are running their annual 'Jameson Empire Awards: Done In 60 Seconds Competition'. This gets people like me and you to create a remake of one of your favourite scenes in movie history. I think if I was at university still I would have probably have bribed some mates to do this, at college we were planning on doing a remake of King Kong, however were banned by our teachers when they realised how we were planning on doing it. It would have looked brilliant.

Most of the things on the main page, are pretty much always in the same place. They tend to keep the title and then add the information below it. I'm not going to go into each detail on the home page, but these are some of the highlights for me.

Daily Movie News: I think this section is really great, I myself use IMDb.com for movie news, but I know a lot of people would use this instead.

Subscribe To Empire: At the moment if you subscribe to Empire, then you can get 3 Free Blu Ray DVDs. The annoying thing about this is these sound amazing, however next month you'll probably be able to get 6 normal DVDs or something like that. I have been disappointed both times that I subscribed to Empire, because both times I got quite weak 'gifts' compared to what they were handing out the next month.

Recent Features: I use this section quite a lot, this is where you get most of the movie information from in my eyes. If they do a poll and you miss it when it's in the highlights section, then you will very likely be able to find it within this section.

There is a lot, a lot more on the home page, but I didn't want to space out the review with too much about just the home page. There is still a lot more to come.

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Links
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At the top of the home page you will find 12 links, some of them give you even more links to click, and some are just links to that particular one. The first link is the Daily Quiz, this section is something I have never used before. It gives you four little quizzes, like whose birthday is it today, and what DVD are these chapters titles taken from etc. The next link is the News link, you pretty much get all the news you want on the main page, so you won't get too much more information by going here.

I am skipping out some of the links here, because I know nothing about them or have never used them, the link Reviews is what makes Empire, Empire. I myself am not a huge fan of reading them on the net, I usually wait until they're in the magazine, but some of the reviews on this website are brilliant.

Then for my favourite page on the Empire website, I don't know why but I seem to spend more time on this than I do any other page on the website. It is Features. At the moment the top feature is 'The 50 Greatest Movie Sequels'. Earlier I was talking about the polls that they do within this website, and this is the write up of the polls that they have taken. I think these are brilliant, they really take a lot of time gathering together our opinions and then writing a mini review about why they are in the top 50 or top 100.

Within the features page you get so much more, I could spend days on this part of the website. You have things from articles on married couples on film and then 'that's a wig, isn't it?' where they look at the greatest wigs in movie history. It's wild and wonderful and very very interesting.

One of the best bits about the site is the Movie Poster Mash Ups. Each week they give them a subject and then people like you and me, take some famous movie posters and mash them to meet the theme. At the moment the theme is Creepy Crawlies Mash Ups. I will attempt to include a picture later of some amazing mash ups, they don't get a prize or anything like that, it's just for fun.

The you have the interviews link. This is pretty self explanatory, and some of the interviews can be truly interesting. Some people they have interviews of at the moment are Terry Gilliam, Sam Medes, Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow. One of the main things I used on this website, and it was the reason I signed up in the first place and that was the competitions. They have some amazing competitions usually, at the moment, not so much. At the moment the only thing that seems good to enter is the Sumo Gigantor, the mother of all bean bags.

The Forum page is just like any other forum that you've been in before, I haven't used it myself, but after looking over it today it seems pretty good. Finally the last link is Magazine; this shows you the deals they have on for Empire Magazine at the moment. At the moment they are offering you 12 Issues of Empire for £25. It cost me £35 and that was a good deal, so this is even better. You are saving yourself 48% off the shop price. On this page however they don't show the other offers, you are best to follow the link I'll put at the bottom of the page to find good deal for Empire.

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My Opinion
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Unlike websites like play.com or even facebook.com, this website has no real point. It seems to just be a online version of the magazine, however I know from friends, and if you have a look in the forum that it is quite a popular website. If you are interested in film, but can't be bothered to get the magazine, then the online Empire is well worth a look. I think there are definite problems with the website; more specifically the home page, I think that it is way too busy and it can sometimes take away from the brilliance of the website. I know they have to fill so much information into what is possibly a small website, but still, I think a lot of enjoyment is lost, by the fact that the website is so busy.

I really do enjoy the website, each week I get a newsletter from them which gives me all of the highlights, and I find myself clicking on some of the links and going back to their page and reading the information. They are one of the biggest sites that I've ever been on which contains all the movie knowledge that you could possibly want. I don't always agree with their reviews, one of the biggest gripes that I have about empire is the fact that they seem to love the big blockbusters that are out and the movies that are making all the money, but the little films, like My Sister's Keeper which was truly a fantastic film, they completely slated, not only did they send a man to review the film, but they totally did not get the meaning behind that wonderful film. I think this is a shame and you will find it's the same on the website reviews.

The features section of Empireonline.com is the best bit by far, I love looking at the movie mash ups especially, I am an avid fan of Photoshop, and this shows some amazing talents of random people. Some of them are damn right hilarious and very talented, however some of them are really ridiculous, someone has mashed up the poster of Ratatouille and called it Hatatouille and added a hat to the rat's head. Not the best and very cheesy, but most are very good and very original.

I myself love the polls that they pull every month or so, I have been known to put my votes in every now and then, at the moment, the latest finished poll is the very best sequels. I myself missed the poll for this one, but I think the results are great. It talks about films which maybe were better than their predecessor, everyone has this misconception that sequels are awful, however as this poll shows, this is not always the case. It is the case sometimes however, well most of the time even.

I have yet to participate in the forum, mainly because I have nothing to say really, but it seems like a very good forum and I'm sure you could get lost for hours in there.

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The Good
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Everything you could possibly want about movies is all jam packed onto this amazing site. It gives users the chance to show their talents in the form of the movie poster mash ups and it gives movie goers the chance to have their say in the polls that they run all throughout the year. The polls are brilliant and weirdly, I think the pictures they find to compliment the different films or actors they are talking about, I know this is a very random thing to talk about, but it is something that I have noticed throughout my time on the website. They obviously spend a lot of time on these polls which is great.

I think the rest of the site is great; it has its flaws, what site doesn't? But if you are into movies then this is the site for you. You will get every little bit of knowledge that you could possibly want about movies all on this site. They keep the site updated all the time which is also very good, you can tell the team that maintain and update this site, do a lot of research and know what they are talking about. A lot of time and effort goes into the site.

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The Bad
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The site is way too busy, and by busy I mean they have put too much information onto the diffrent pages, most specifically the home page. If you do anything after this review, take a look at the home page for me, I'll include a link at the bottom of this review, and you'll see what I mean. I was taught to keep it simple and it will keep people's interests for longer, and this is what I follow when looking at websites and especially when it comes to review them.

The site is nothing new, you have sites like IMDb.com out there which are better maintained and less busy, however I still think this site includes a lot more information than IMDb.com could ever dream about. I think the site is aimed at people who already love the magazine and not really at people who have an interest in film, but are not really prepared to by a magazine. I'm sure a lot of you will still love the site; I just think the magazine is aimed at being an extension of the magazine.

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Should You Go On the Site?
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Yes, if you have the slightest interest in movies, then I'm sure you'll love this site, it has all of the movie news that you could possibly want, including fantastic reviews of new and upcoming movies. I find myself looking at these reviews before going to the cinema, sometimes I forget and I generally find myself disappointing. I have to say, I only seem to agree with the professional reviews around half the time to be honest, like I said earlier you will find that they send out males to watch definite 'chick flick' films and then of course these males slate the movie. I always tend to look at who has written the review and then judge if the film sounds good for me.

Usually the competitions on the site are fantastic and are really worth entering, I have yet to win a thing, but I am probably one of the unluckiest people in the world when it comes to competitions. I've entered hundreds and won none. Really good odds. I would recommend attempting to enter some, and then browsing around the site and making your own mind up.

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Final Opinion
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Empire in general is a fantastic company, they offer a lot of competitions, and they keep me informed with a lot of my needed movie knowledge. I think the magazine and the website are fabulous, I think the website seems to come across as an extension of the magazine, it'll never be as good, but it is still brilliant. One of my favourite parts about Empire is the Done in 60 Seconds section, I think it is a great opportunity for people like me, and if I think of something, maybe I'll be able to drag the small amount of mates that didn't go to uni and film a adaptation of a famous movie scene. Any recommendations people?

It is a truly awesome site and I think the fact that I love the magazine so much helps as well. If you have ever read Empire, you will know it comes with a hefty price tag on top if you buy it from the shops, for some people, well even me this price is awfully expensive, but I have found some brilliant deals by subscribing to the magazine and I think this helps a bit. If you love the idea of the magazine, but don't want to pay the hefty price tag, then you can pretty much get the same information from the website, which is brilliant. It doesn't have the same feel as the magazine and it can be hard to search for things every now and then, but most of the time you get enough information off there.

If you like IMDb.com but want more information, then you should check out this site. It's very good even though it does have its little problems; you get a lot of information about movies and some fun stuff as well. You can't go wrong.

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Magazines
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http://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/store/displaystor e.asp?sid=3561

The link above shows you the deals on offer for the magazine.

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Home Page
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http://www.empireonline.com/

Hope this helps.

(C) Kirsty 2009

Summary: A great site, well worth checking out.