This is one of two limited edition front covers for subscribers to Empire magazine. There are no extra advertisements surrounding the main picture as it is specifically for subscribers so there is no need to try and sell the magazine further because it has already been bought in advance. This particular cover, as I said at the start is one of two covers that the subscriber could get. As I talked about with the Hobbit poster, here again the two different front covers relate to two different characters - Loki and Thor. For an Empire front cover, this front cover is surprisingly detailed as it shows the background of the character as well as the character himself. As seen with the 'Clash of the Titans' Empire magazine front cover, the background is normally forgotten and fades into black, but here the background is fully developed. I prefer this approach to the 'Clash of the Titans' approach, as it allows the viewer to grasp the feel of the film and the world in which it takes place. It works particularly well with this front cover in particular, as the background here is particularly impressive. It wouldn't work nearly as well with a film like a chick flick or even most horror films, as the background for their front cover wouldn't be as interesting. Here, however the background is very visually impressive as it has obviously been created using CGI, which makes it look very high budget and worth spending money on. It also makes the film look as if the stakes are very high, and the whole world in which it takes place could collapse if the protagonist isn't successful. When storylines have high stakes they tend to attract a larger audience as everything about them seems to a higher degree - the tension is higher as the stakes are higher, the battles are bigger as more people are affected and the protagonists and antagonists are more impressive characters as they are the ones fighting over these high stakes. So in short, high stakes makes the whole film bigger and gets more money as people think it is worth going to see them. This does not, of course, mean that it is necessarily a good film, as proved countless times by Michael Bay, but it nonetheless gets a large audience. This large audience can come largely from teenagers who have more dispensable money that they can use up, and don't spend their money on much else other than things that'll entertain them. Films that target this audience tend to get a large gross as it is such a big group to hit.
The title of this empire magazine, as with the title for the 'Clash of the Titans' Empire magazine, has been edited, but this time it hasn't been edited in such an impressive way, here it is much more subtle. Instead of adding flames, this title seems to fade out at the bottom, leaving the title looking not quite finished. I am not quite sure why this was done, apart from the fact that it allows more room for the picture and does not take up quite so much space. So the only real benefit that seems to come from this is making the title less significant. I suppose that this kind of creative liberty is understandable in subscribers' editions of the magazine as there is no need to sell the brand of Empire as the magazine has already been pre-ordered. Even so, you wonder why the whole title isn't slightly faded, rather than just the bottom, which makes the first 'E' of Empire look more like an 'F' and the 'P and the 'R' looking exactly the same. I don't think that this works very well as it seems to have no impact whatsoever, and instead makes it look very strange.
Overall I think that this front cover does look impressive, and it clearly shows of the visual strengths of the film, such as the excellent and forward thinking use of a CGI backdrop. Although the title is slightly odd, it doesn't affect the overall impact of the front cover too much, and the eye is more drawn to the impressively dressed Loki then the title. It advertises the film well, and makes it look as if it is a high budget, original film, which I suppose is, in a way, justifiable. The choice of putting Loki on the front cover is a good one, I think, as he is an impressive looking character that captures the feel of the film. There is plenty to learn from it, as it opens up new possibilities for the background of a front cover - it doesn't have to be a simple, plain background, but can be filled with a background from the actual film. It has also shown me how different subscribers' editions of magazines are from the standard editions, and it looks a lot nicer and cleaner.