How to Write a Movie Review on Phone

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Whether a movie is a rotten love apple or a brilliant piece of work of art, if people are watching it, it'south worth critiquing. A decent movie review should entertain, persuade and inform, providing an original opinion without giving abroad too much of the plot. A great movie review can be a work of art in its ain right. Read on to learn how to analyze a movie similar a professional picture critic, come up with an interesting thesis, and write a review equally entertaining every bit your source material.

Sample Movie Reviews

1. 1

   Commencement with a compelling fact or opinion on the pic. You desire to get the reader hooked immediately. This judgement needs to requite them a feel for your review and the movie – is information technology good, slap-up, terrible, or just okay? – and keep them reading. Some ideas include:^[one]

   • Comparison to Relevant Event or Movie: "Every day, our leaders, politicians, and pundits call for "revenge"– confronting terrorist groups, against international rivals, against other political parties. Just few of them understand the common cold, subversive, and ultimately hollow thrill of revenge likewise as the characters of Blue Ruin."
   • Review in a nutshell: "Despite a compelling lead performance past Tom Hanks and a great soundtrack, Forrest Gump never gets out of the shadow of its weak plot and questionable premise."
   • Context or Background Data: "Boyhood might exist the first movie made where knowing how it was produced–slowly, over 12 years, with the same actors–is just equally crucial as the movie itself."

2. two

   Give a clear, well-established opinion early on. Don't leave the reader guessing whether you like the movie or non. Let them know early on on, then that you can spend the rest of the time "proving" your rating.^[2]

   • Using stars, a score out of 10 or 100, or the uncomplicated thumbs-up and thumbs-downwardly is a quick way to give your thoughts. You then write about why you lot chose that rating.
   • Great Moving-picture show:ABC is the rare movie that succeeds on almost every level, where each character, scene, costume, and joke firing on all cylinders to make a film worth repeated viewings."
   • Bad Movie: "Information technology doesn't matter how much you enjoy kung-fu and karate films: with 47 Ronin, yous're better off saving your money, your popcorn, and time."
   • Okay Movie: "I loved the wildly uneven Interstellar far more than I should have, only that doesn't hateful it is perfect. Ultimately, the utter awe and spectacle of space swept me through the admittedly heavy-handed plotting and dialogue."

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3. 3

   Support your opinions with evidence from specific scenes. This is where taking notes during the movie really pays off. Information technology's hard to sway other people with your opinion if you lot can't give facts that support your argument.^[3]

   • Great: "Michael B. Hashemite kingdom of jordan and Octavia Spencer's chemistry would carry Fruitvale Station even if the script wasn't as good. The mid-picture prison scene in particular, where the camera never leaves their faces, shows how much they can convey with nothing but their eyelids, the flashing tension of neck muscles, and a barely cracking phonation."
   • Bad: "Jurassic World's biggest flaw, a consummate lack of relatable female characters, is only further underscored by a laughably unrealistic shot of our heroine running abroad from a dinosaur – in heels."
   • Okay: "At the finish of the twenty-four hour period, Snowpiercer can't determine what kind of movie it wants to be. The attention to detail in fight scenes, where every weapon, lightbulb, and slick patch of ground is accounted for, doesn't translate to an ending that seems powerful but ultimately says piddling of substance."

4. 4

   Create an original thesis based on your analysis. Now that you lot've thoroughly studied the movie, what unique insights can y'all bring to the tabular array? Come upwards with a thesis, a key idea to hash out and back up with your observations on the various elements of the film. Your thesis should exist discussed in the kickoff paragraph of your review. Having a thesis will take your review beyond the plot summary stage and into the realm of film criticism, which is rightfully its own art form. Ask yourself the following questions to come up with a compelling thesis for your review:^[4]

   • Does the film reflect on a current outcome or contemporary consequence? It could be the director's style of engaging in a bigger conversation. Look for ways to relate the content of the film to the "real" earth.
   • Does the film seem to have a message, or does information technology attempt to elicit a specific response or emotion from the audience? You could discuss whether or not it achieves its own goals.
   • Does the film connect with you on a personal level? You could write a review stemming from your own feelings and weave in some personal stories to make information technology interesting for your readers.

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1. i

   Follow your thesis paragraph with a brusque plot summary. It'south proficient to give readers an idea of what they'll exist in for if they determine to see the movie you lot're reviewing. Give a brief summary of the plot in which you identify the main characters, draw the setting, and give a sense of the central conflict or signal of the pic. Never break the number one rule of movie reviews: don't requite as well much away. Don't ruin the movie for your readers!^[five]

   • When you lot name characters in your plot summary, list the actors' names directly later on in parenthesis.
   • Detect a place to mention the manager's name and the total movie championship.
   • If you lot experience you must discuss information that might "spoil" things for readers, warn them first.

2. ii

   Commencement to talk about the film's technical and artistic choices. Plot is just one piece of a motion picture, and shouldn't dictate your entire review. Some movies don't have great or compelling plots, simply that doesn't hateful the motion picture itself is bad. Other things to focus on include:^[6]

   • Cinematography: "Her is a globe drenched in color, using bright, soft reds and oranges alongside calming whites and grays that both build, and slowly strip away, the feelings of beloved between the protagonists. Every frame feels like a painting worth sitting in."
   • Tone: "Despite the insane loneliness and high stakes of being stuck alone on Mars, The Martian's witty script keeps humor and excitement alive in every scene. Space may be dangerous and scary, just the joy of scientific discovery is intoxicating."
   • Music and Audio: "No State For Old Men's bold decision to skip music entirely pays off in spades. The eerie silence of the desert, punctuated by the brief spells of violent, upward-close-and-personal audio effects of hunter and hunted, keeps yous constantly on the edge of your seat."
   • Interim: "While he's fantastic whenever he's on the move, using his absurd stoicism to counteract the rampaging bus, Keanu Reeves tin't quite match his costar in the placidity moments of Speed, which stammer nether his expressionless gaze."

3. 3

   Move into your analysis of the picture. Write several paragraphs discussing interesting elements of the movie that support your thesis. Discuss the acting, the direction, the cinematography, the setting, and so on, using clear, entertaining prose that keeps your readers engaged.^[7]

   • Keep your writing clear and easy to empathize. Don't use too much technical filmmaking jargon, and make your language well-baked and attainable.
   • Present both the facts and your opinion. For example, you might country something such as, "The Baroque background music was a jarring contrast to the 20th century setting." This is a lot more informative then simply proverb, "The music was a strange choice for the picture show."

4. iv

   Use plenty of examples to support your points. If you lot make a statement well-nigh the moving picture, back it up with a descriptive example. Draw the way scenes look, the way a certain person acted, camera angles, and and then on. You can quote dialogue to help yous make your points as well. In this way you are giving your readers a feel for the pic and continuing to express your critique of the film at the same time.^[8]

5. 5

   Give information technology some personality. Y'all could treat your review like a formal college essay, simply it's more interesting if you brand information technology your own. If your writing fashion is usually witty and funny, your review should exist no exception. If you're serious and dramatic, that works, too. Let your language and writing style reverberate your unique perspective and personality - it's much more entertaining for the reader.^[ix]

6. 6

   Bring your review full-circle in the ending. Give the review some closure, usually by trying back to your opening fact or thesis.^[ten] Call back, people read reviews to decide whether or not they should lookout man a movie. Stop on a judgement that tells them whether it'south worth seeing. Attempt to brand your conclusion entertaining, also!^[xi]

   • Great: "In the terminate, fifty-fifty the characters of Blue Ruin know how pointless their feud is. Simply revenge, much like every taut minute of this thriller, is far besides addictive to requite up until the bitter end.""
   • Bad: "Much like the oft-mentioned "box of chocolates", Wood Gump has a couple of good niggling morsels. Only almost of the scenes, too sweet by one-half, should have been in the trash long earlier this movie was put out."
   • Okay: "Without the novel, even revolutionary concept, Boyhood may not be a great movie. It might not fifty-fifty exist "good." Merely the power the moving picture finds in the dazzler of passing time and little, inconsequential moments – moments that could only be captured over 12 years of shooting – make Linklater's latest an essential picture show for anyone interested in the art of flick."

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1. ane

   Edit your review. In one case you've finished the commencement draft, read it through (you can fifty-fifty read information technology out loud!) and decide whether information technology flows well and has the correct structure. You may need to shift paragraphs around, delete sentences, or add together more cloth here and there to fill out parts that are stunted. Give your review at least one editorial pass, and maybe ii or 3, before you consider information technology to be editorially audio.^[12]

   • Enquire yourself whether your review stayed truthful to your thesis. Did your determination tie back in with the initial ideas y'all proposed?
   • Decide whether your review contains enough details virtually the movie. You may need to get back and add more description here and there to give readers a ameliorate sense of what the motion-picture show's about.
   • Make up one's mind whether your review is interesting plenty as a stand-alone piece of writing. Did you contribute something original to this discussion? What will readers proceeds from reading your review that they couldn't from just watching the movie?

2. 2

   Proofread your review. Make sure you've spelled all the actors' names correctly and that you got all the dates correct. Clean up typos, grammatical errors, and other spelling errors as well. A make clean, proofread review will seem much more professional than one that's total of silly mistakes.^[thirteen]

3. 3

   Publish or share your review. Post it on your weblog, share it in a movie word forum, put it up on Facebook, or email it to your friends and family. Movies are the quintessential art grade of our time, and like all fine art, they spark controversy, provide a venue for self-reflection, and profoundly influence our culture. All this means they're worth discussing, whether they're flops or works of pure genius. Congratulations for contributing your valuable opinion to the discussion.

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1. 1

   Gather basic facts well-nigh the motion-picture show. You can practice this before or after you sentinel the movie, but you should definitely do information technology before yous write the review, because you'll need to weave the facts into your review every bit you write. Here'south what you demand to know:^[14]

   • The title of the film, and the year information technology came out.
   • The managing director'due south proper name.
   • The names of the lead actors.
   • The genre.

2. 2

   Accept notes on the motion picture every bit you spotter it. Before you sit downwardly to watch a moving-picture show, get out a notepad or a laptop to take notes. Movies are long, and yous tin hands forget details or major plot points. Taking notes allows you to jot down piffling things you can return to later.^[xv]

   • Make a notation every time something sticks out to you lot, whether information technology'due south expert or bad. This could be costuming, makeup, set design, music, etc. Think about how this item relates to the rest of the movie and what it means in the context of your review.
   • Take note of patterns you begin to discover as the flick unfolds.
   • Use the pause push button frequently so you brand sure not to miss anything, and rewind equally necessary.

3. 3

   Clarify the mechanics of the movie. Analyze the different components that came together in the picture as y'all picket. During or later on your viewing, ask yourself what impression the picture left with you in these areas:^[16]

   • Direction: Consider the managing director and how he or she choose to portray/explain the events in the story. If the movie was slow, or didn't include things you lot thought were necessary, you tin attribute this to the managing director. If you've seen other movies directed by the same person, compare them and determine which y'all like the most.
   • Cinematography: What techniques were used to moving picture the movie? What setting and groundwork elements helped to create a certain tone?
   • Writing: Evaluate the script, including dialogue and characterization. Did you feel like the plot was inventive and unpredictable or boring and weak? Did the characters' words seem apparent to you?
   • Editing: Was the movie choppy or did it flow smoothly from scene to scene? Did they incorporate a montage to assistance build the story? And was this obstructive to the narrative or did it assistance it? Did they use long cuts to help accentuate an actor'south acting power or many reaction shots to testify a grouping's reaction to an event or dialogue? If visual effects were used were the plates well-chosen and were the composited effects part of a seamless experience? (Whether the effects looked realistic or not is non the jurisdiction of an editor, however, they do choose the footage to be sent off to the compositors, and then this could still affect the film.)
   • Costume design: Did the clothing choices fit the style of the flick? Did they contribute to the overall tone, rather than digressing from it?
   • Set design: Consider how the setting of the film influenced its other elements. Did it add or subtract from the experience for you? If the movie was filmed in a existent identify, was this location well-chosen?
   • Score or soundtrack: Did it work with the scenes? Was it over/under-used? Was it suspenseful? Amusing? Irritating? A soundtrack can make or break a moving-picture show, especially if the songs have a particular message or meaning to them.

4. 4

   Watch it one more time. It's incommunicable to fully understand a movie you've but seen one time, especially if you lot're pausing it ofttimes to take notes. Spotter it at to the lowest degree again before you compose your review. Pay attention to details you might have missed the first time around. Option new points of focus this fourth dimension; if you took a lot of notes on the acting the first time you watched the motion picture, focus on the cinematography the second time effectually.^[17]

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Add New Question

• Question

  How do I format a educatee moving-picture show review?

  

  This respond was written by one of our trained squad of researchers who validated information technology for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Unlike instructors volition have unlike expectations about how you lot format your review. Enquire your instructor or accept a look at the assignment handout to find out if they accept specific instructions. Otherwise, you can search online for samples of student picture reviews online to get an idea. Make sure you look at examples that are advisable to your school level (due east.g., middle schoolhouse, high school, or higher).

• Question

  What should I look for in a movie when writing a review?

  

  This answer was written by 1 of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  There are a diverseness of factors yous can look at. For example, if you're interested in the more technical aspects of the flick, you might pay attention to things like the cinematography, lighting, and sound quality. If y'all want to have a more artistic approach, study things like the plot, pacing, and interim.

• Question

  If the picture has a lot of main characters, should I write nearly all of them?

  

  You would want to mention the ones that you think are the about important to the plot. Besides, don't give a full particular about their role in the moving-picture show--simply a sneak pinnacle.

• Question

  How exercise I end a movie review?

  

  Think of a conclusion that sums upwards all of the different parts of the moving picture and so that you tin can make up one's mind which things are good, which things are bad and how good the moving-picture show is in general.

• Question

  Do we demand to tell what is happening in the motion-picture show when writing a review?

  

  To some degree. There is no need to write out the whole plot, but you will want to make the general thought of the motion clear, and you lot might besides focus on a few scenes or aspects of the motion picture that especially stood out to you.

• Question

  At minimum, how many words are to necessary when writing a film review?

  

  In that location is not fix minimum amount of words for motion reviews. However, it is necessary to be clear and concise. In order to continue readers interested, don't give likewise much particular or make information technology also long.

• Question

  Where can I find movie reviews?

  

  Search online or in your local paper. Y'all can as well visit sites like Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, which compile all of the reviews for every flick that comes out, with links to the full review.

• Question

  How do we start an introduction for a pic review? Should I start with a question or a declarative judgement? Exercise I have to relate it to other events?

  

  You lot can start your review all the same you desire. Whether it'south a quote, statement or question, nothing is incorrect. And no, you exercise non have to relate it to other events. It will add some depth to the review, merely it is not mandatory.

• Question

  How do I start my motion-picture show review?

  

  Start your review by writing the names of the actors, director and producer.

• Question

  Do you have to give a "star" rating to your review?

  

  Not if you don't want to. Stars, number ratings, and other "quick" reviews are helpful for some readers who just want to scan the review, and many sites crave them if y'all want to write for those sites. However, thoughtful pieces without numbers are equally common, and are often a better way to give a nuanced review.

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• If you don't like the movie, don't be calumniating and hateful. If possible, avoid watching the movies that you would surely hate.

• Understand that just because the motion picture isn't to your taste, that doesn't mean y'all should give it a bad review. A good reviewer helps people detect movie's they volition like. Since yous don't have the same taste in movies equally anybody else, you demand to be able to tell people if they will enjoy the movie, fifty-fifty if y'all didn't.

• Structure is very important; try categorizing the different parts of the film and commenting on each of those individually. Deciding how proficient each thing is volition help you come to a more accurate conclusion. For case, things similar acting, special effects, cinematography, think about how good each of those are.

• Make sure to accept a lot of people's stance on the movie and include it in the review. Too, state if you lot enjoyed it and why.

• Read a lot of moving picture reviews, and think about what makes some of them more helpful than others. Again, the value of a review is not e'er in its accuracy (how much the reader agrees with the reviewer) but in usefulness (how well the reviewer can predict whether the reader will enjoy the flick).

• Brand sure non to add spoilers!

Thank you for submitting a tip for review!

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About This Article

Article Summary X

To write a film review, offset with a compelling fact or stance to hook your readers, like "Despite a swell performance by Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump never overcomes its weak plot." Then, elaborate on your opinion of the movie correct off the bat so readers know where you stand. Once your stance is clear, provide examples from the movie that prove your point, like specific scenes, dialogue, songs, or photographic camera shots. To learn how to study a film closely earlier you write a review, scroll down!

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