CRITIQUE ARCHIVE

http://www.firstlook.com

First Look: Lots of Slim Pickings
By Christa Starr

With over three and a half million previews available on www.firstlook.com, one would expect the site to be packed full of information. And it is. The problem is finding what you're looking for.

The site epitomizes the "more is better" philosophy of web design, packing as much information as possible onto every single page. Unfortunately, in its efforts to provide a one-stop shop for movie, TV, game and music previews, the site clusters everything so closely together you need a magnifying glass to read it.

In an attempt to help newcomers navigate the site, First Look has provided several

conveniences at the top of each page - a search function, menu buttons for the main pages of the four major content categories, and an interactive site tour (see image to the right). While providing a site tour is helpful in figuring out how to separate the information from the navigation, the fact that it is almost necessary to look at the tour to understand the site

points towards a flaw in the site's overall coherency.

I was also disappointed in the type of information available on the site. I'm not sure where First Look gets its previews from, but when I did a few searches for the television shows I watch regularly (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos, The X-Files and Fear), no matches were found. The Music categories gave me similar results. However, when I started exploring the available movie previews things started to look up.

Perhaps because there are far fewer major films released every month, numerous

previews were available, including quite a few for the movies I've been looking forward too. The page design for the previews is also a set up from the main pages. Seen on the left, it has a viewing window (which allows you to stop and pause the previews as well as change the resolution of the preview for better streaming), a synopsis, basic information about the cast and crew, links to member reviews, as well as links to other sources of

information such as "Industry News," "Fan Sites," and the "Official Site" for the film. Still, don't go looking to First Look for information about smaller, independent films like Christopher Nolan's much-anticipated neo-noir film Memento. For indie reviews, I recommend going to an indie-dedicated film site like Film Threat (www.filmthreat.com) or the broader ZENtertainment site (www.zentertainment.com).

The Games category also seemed to be more comprehensive than the Music and TV categories. Certain games were even offered as streaming demos (of course, only PC games were available for testing). However, the deficiencies I found in the site were not suitably offset by the benefits. The site just seems to be trying to do too many things at once, leaving it at a disadvantage compared to smaller sites that focus on a single media, music genre, or game platform. Someday, First Look may be worth a second look, but for now I'll be surfing elsewhere.