Movie Review: Simple Tips Students Need to Know

Writing movie reviews is a way for students to share their passion for storytelling and cinematography. Movie reviews can capture emotion and can inspire readers to experience new art forms or steer clear of a waste of time. Writing a movie review can be a complicated endeavor. Capturing the feeling of the movie without giving away the plot can be a difficult goal to accomplish. Here are some tips you need to know before you write your next movie review.

Watch the Movie More than Once

A movie review is meant to provide your informed opinion on the effectiveness of a movie’s plot, characters, conflict, and cinematography. You cannot provide an informed opinion if you do not fully understand the movie. Watching the movie more than once will allow you to properly analyze the movie as a reviewer and not solely as a member of the audience.

The first watch of the movie should help you determine your initial reaction to the elements of the film. You also become familiar with the film so that you can later review how effectively the movie executed character development, conflict development, and plot. The first watch is for you to experience the movie. The second watch is for you to evaluate the movie. Multiple watches are necessary if you want to write an informed and insightful review.

Understand Your Audience

Movie reviews come in a variety of styles based on the audience they are being written for. It is important to understand who will be reading your review so that you can tailor your piece to their level of understanding. If you are writing for a general audience, you may not need to focus on the detailed breakdown of the technical elements of the film. If you are writing for an informed audience who is educated in the art form, you may need to include well-informed opinions on some of the more complex elements.

When you write a movie review you are giving your opinion on a piece while also deciding if that movie will be a good fit for your audience. By knowing who will most likely read your review, you can provide an informed take that will provide your audience with all of the information they need to decide if a movie is something they would enjoy.

Back Up Your Opinions with Solid Reasoning

A movie review is a place for you to share your opinion on a movie, but readers are looking for an opinion that is backed up by solid reasoning. Whether you are praising a movie or critiquing it, you should always give well-informed reasons to back up your initial opinion. Providing reasoning can help readers get a deeper understanding of your opinion. Your praise and critique are only valuable to your reader if you have understandable reasons and evidence for feeling the way you feel.

Although backing up your opinions is important, you do not want to give too much information to not ruin the movie for a reader who has not yet seen it. Spoiling a movie or giving away key details can ruin the experience for readers and you can lose credibility with your audience. Provide reasoning in broad strokes if a detailed explanation would give away any spoilers to the movie.

Put the Performances in the Spotlight

Movie studios use popular actors to promote movies for a reason; because they know it works. The same is true for your review. Popular actors can bring mainstream interest to any film they are in. When reviewing a movie, it is always important to comment on the performances of the actors in the movie. Many moviegoers choose what to see based on the people in it and they may only be reading your review to see your opinion on that actor’s performance. Be sure to give an honest and evidence-based review of the performances on screen.

Dig into the Director

In addition to the performances, a review should always discuss the director. The director is the mastermind behind the film’s organization, story, and execution. Readers want to know if a director captured the audience’s attention with their work. Did they guide the actors to a great performance? Did they exhibit control over every element of the movie? Were they lacking in any area? Was it like their other work? Answering these questions for your readers can give them a better understanding of the overall structure of the film and how it holds up when compared to other works.

Pick Apart the Plot

The plot of a movie is arguably the element that makes or breaks the movie-going experience. Your readers want to know if a movie was engaging and fun to watch. They need to know if the story made sense or if it was so full of holes that you couldn’t follow along. Your plot analysis should always be spoiler free but should comment on how well the plot was structured and executed. You should also mention the characters and whether or not they were fully developed and believable. A messy plot with shallow characters may be enough to keep people from watching the movie while a well-developed plot and great characters can make for a fantastic moviegoing experience.

Slice into the Cinematography

Cinematography is how a movie is filmed. The cinematography captures everything about how a movie looks. The lighting, the movement, and the transitions are all part of the cinematography of a movie. Cinematography can help develop the tone of a movie and establishes the overall feeling that a movie gives an audience. As a movie reviewer, it is necessary to comment on a movie’s cinematography because it greatly impacts the experience of watching a movie. Movies are a visual art form and when cinematography is done expertly, we are left with breath-taking masterpieces. However, when a movie is filmed poorly or the cinematography does not align with the plot, movies can get lost in visuals that just do not make sense. Praising or critiquing the cinematography of a movie is just as important to your reader as the performances or the plot.