How to Review a Movie – Writing Tips and Common Mistakes

Great tips on some of the most important steps that you should take each time you write a movie review alongside great writing tips and some of the most common mistakes made by movie review writers.

If you love watching movies, writing a review should not be difficult. Most people tend to read reviews before they decide to watch a particular movie. The decision on whether to watch a specific movie will be based on whether the review is interesting or not. Apparently, if the review is boring, you would not expect a person to proceed and watch the movies. On the contrary, if the review were interesting, you would expect the person to be eager to watch the movie. As a student, occasionally, you will be expected to review a movie. Some people dislike the entire writing process for reasons best known to them. If you have difficulty writing a movie review, you can always request help from reputable custom writing companies like Peachy Essay. Overall, this article will discuss how to review a movie and the common mistakes you should avoid.

Watch the movie at least once or twice.

Watching the movie once is necessary, but watching it twice is recommended. Watching helps write down the necessary recommendations for the characters’ descriptions and the movie’s different scenes. Writing down also eliminates the possibility of forgetting essential points that could be crucial in the review. Major and minor points should be recorded without being overlooked, as they can prove helpful later.

Research the main facts about the movie

Watching the movie and taking notes is not enough; proper research should be done on other equally important factors like; the movie’s title, its genre, its year of production, the main producer, the lead actors/actor, and their motivation to make the movie, the central theme, the available budget, and the plot development which is if the movie is an original scenario, a re-telling, a remake or it is based on a book.

Draft a review outline

The draft is more like the skeletal frame on which the whole study will stand, and it is always a good idea that could lead to half the intended success. Before writing the actual movie review, an outline and structure of all the thoughts and arguments should be recorded. The outline helps in organizing your review concisely and logically.

Analyse the movie

Give a humble opinion about the movie because, as a reviewer, you should never shy away from telling the readers whether you thought the movie was good, bad, or indifferent. Readers rely on available reviewers whose tastes reflect their own when deciding whether or not to spend their time and money. As a reviewer, express why and how you came up with the criticism, and be sure to back up your thoughts with specifics such as; a disappointing performance, a ridiculous plot, beautiful cinematography, and complex and hard-to-understand materials that leave you thinking.

Consider your audience

Define your audience to understand which elements of the movie they will want to be emphasized in your review. Make sure the style of writing fits the readers’ age category. For movies that were produced a long time ago or that are preferred by older audiences, consider sounding calmer and fairer, while for the younger generations, you can use a language they fancy and find fun in.

Avoid spoilers

The main point of a good review is to get the readers interested in watching the movie. The readers will prefer reading the review first before they decide on whether to watch the movie or not. Hence the reviewer should try as much as possible to be honest but at the same time not describe the whole movie or movie scenes as it will ruin the readers’ morale to watch the movies.

Describe the scenes/movie’s originality and quality

Movies will either have unique scenes and originality or maybe copy an idea that was used before in other movies. The review should describe the uniqueness if it is available, and in cases of copying from other movies, the review should mention the movies from which the scenes were copied.

Rate the characters, the story, and the technical details

Evaluate if the actors met the expectations of the plot and the story and if their play was fascinating and showed the real characters. If they played poorly or did not meet the expected performance, you may suspect that the script was wrong or that the directors made a mistake. Evaluate the technical details of the movie, such as lighting, editing, the sound, and how they help to make the movie more fascinating. Also, evaluate if the music fits the movie and if some scenes seem non-professional.

Reread, rewrite and edit

Proofreading helps avoid mistakes such as misspelling the names of characters or directors and grammar mistakes and helps ensure the review is flowing. Mistakes make the readers assume your opinion as they lack the seriousness required to take your review seriously.

Common mistakes to avoid

Focusing on the wrong thing

Avoid giving unnecessary analysis or details irrelevant to the movie under review, such as explaining the history of the movie industry if the movie is not about the history of movies. Always give an analysis of things that are relevant to the movie and things that the reader might be interested in.

Including the “I” from the review

Avoid using the first person in every paragraph or every sentence. The review will sound more objective-oriented and persuasive if the student switches to the 3rd person. Since the review exposes your understanding, opinions, likes, and dislikes, it is unnecessary to insert yourself into it.

Not doing enough research

After watching the movie, researching the film is highly critical because it would expound on all the fundamental details that are not in the film. The reader needs to find a comprehensive review, so do not leave room for them to start doing their research or look for other broad reviews.

Lack of evidence

Presenting your opinion without any explanation or evidence why you think that way will not be considered reliable. For each opinion given, you need to state your reason for liking or disliking something in the film.

Lack of conclusions and recommendations

Providing recommendations about a film is one of the main purposes of writing a movie review; therefore, you should not deprive readers of your findings and thoughts. Recommendations advise readers about a good movie to watch.

I hope this article has equipped you with all the knowledge and skills you need to review a movie.