A movie review is a short story that contains the author's opinion about a movie. Its writing is based on the analysis of the plot, the main performances, the historical and geographical setting of the film.
In addition, the review can include the evaluation of complementary aspects such as lighting, set design, editing, and the film's soundtrack. Through these types of reviews, the author guides readers on what to expect when watching a movie, by weighing the overall quality, followed by a final recommendation on its content.
The final rating of the film can be made on different scales: from 1 to 5 stars, for example, or by selecting a category between excellent, good, fair and bad.
Movie reviews are typically short, 600-1200 words maximum. However, they can also be in video format and last from 2 to 20 minutes or more. They are generally capsules of analysis and opinion on fashion films.
Parts of the film review
A standard movie review is made up of the following parts:
1. Introduction
This section presents the topic with the basic information of the film; that is, the name of the film, year of release, actors, director, writer and scriptwriter.
An introduction to the story is provided in the introduction, a quick run through the main plot.
2- Summary
It highlights the elementary aspects of the film, the context of the main plot and other details of interest to the reader, such as the historical, political or geographical context of the film.
The synthesis does not include advances on the plot or the ending of the film.
3- Analysis
It is the top part of the review, in which the author details his impressions of the thematic content of the film.
The credibility of a film review depends on the argumentation of the opinions expressed. Therefore, the author's judgment must be based on solid and coherent ideas.
In the analysis, the author questions the course of the story, the decisions of the main characters and, naturally, the outcome.
It is in this section where the consistency in the behavior of the characters is revealed, and its incidence in the course of events.
It is worth mentioning that the film review must be impartial: if the film was not to the taste of the person who wrote the review, this aspect must be exposed from objectivity and logic at all times.
4- Evaluation
Based on the previous points, the closing of the film review is given by the evaluation of the general quality of the film.
Here, the author reviews the reasons that lead him to approve or disapprove of the film, and reinforces why the reader should, or should not, go to movie theaters to see the film. In this sense, the conclusion of the review is given by a value judgment based on the author's criteria.
However, the true value of a review lies in its usefulness, which will depend on the ability of the writer to predict whether the film will be liked, or not, by the reader. Here is an example of a film review in video format:
References
- How to write a movie review. WikiHow, Inc. Recovered from: en.wikihow.com
- Film Review (2012). Duke University. North Carolina, USA. Recovered from: twp.duke.edu
- Nichol, M. (2011). 7 Tips for Writing a Film Review. Daily Writing Tips. Recovered from: dailywritingtips.com
- Pérez, J., and Merino, M. (2011). Definition of Critical Review. Recovered from: definicion.de
- Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2017). Film criticism. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.