Not-short And Helpful Guide On How To Write A Movie Review

A movie review is one of the most common assignments where students can express considerations on films they enjoy. Usually, this paper is a place to speak about truly interesting things for students. Still, how to make this more academically? Here, we will share plenty of tips on writing a movie review to make it strong.

What a Movie Review Essay is about?

The first question we want to cover is what is a movie review. This assignment may seem obvious. Still, as our experience shows, not all writers approach such correctly.

So, a movie review provides the analysis of a certain film, including the documentary, the main idea, plot and its twists, roles and actors, and other things required for the proper analysis. Even if this review is about your personal experience of watching a movie and your consideration, it still should be well-organized and more or less objective. 

So, the perfect movie review combines a clear and logical description of a movie itself and your judgments about it. As we said, making a review well-organized is very important. So, let’s look at how to do this.

Preliminary Organization of Your Movie Review

The effectiveness of your writing greatly depends on its proper organization. So, making your plan is always a good idea for preparing a really good movie review essay. Making an outline is simple and necessary for writing a clear and logical text. For this purpose, you need to take a separate piece of paper and keep it nearby during writing. When you have this outline, it is always easy to see spots with examples and more detailed explanations will be desired. 

If we speak about concrete parts of such outline, we suggest you the next ones:

• introduction – here, you state a title, the date of release, and other relevant details briefly;
• outline for your film – the brief description of the story this movie/documentary has;
• your analysis on how does the story is developed (climax, actions, conclusion, etc.);
• your suggestions about this movie/documentary;
• final judgment – here, you state whether the aim of a film has been achieved, provide evidence, examples, and other things you consider necessary for a comprehensive analysis of this film.

Main Elements of a Movie Review

Regardless of the movie you intend to speak about, there are basic elements that should be covered in any good movie review. Here they are:

• Title 

Always mention it in your text. Even if your headline contains this title, you should indicate it at the beginning of your essay also and even once or twice after. Mentioning it too often can have an adverse effect and negatively impact the readability of your text. Still, it should be explicit from your text about which film you will speak about. This may sound too obvious. Still, many authors make exactly this mistake.

• Summary

Your purpose here is to explain the essence of the target movie/documentary very briefly, especially for those reviewers who have not watched it yet. So, keep it always short even if this film was really fascinating and you have a lot of impressions to share with. When you write it, try to address the question of why it matters or is interesting for review? Describe briefly what events happened in this movie and indicate the reasons why this film is worthy of watching. Pick those words that can make your future reviewers interested in this movie. Alternatively, try to think from your reviewer’s perspective and consider those things that could make them interested.

• Filmmaker

Provide here brief research about persons or a company that directed this film. What kind of a person/company is it? Is it he/she/it controversial, has a background of creating the same movies? So, indicate in this part briefly about a moviemaker itself and other films made, especially of the same genre.

• Significance

Outline here the value of a film or documentary. Perhaps, it reveals some crucial events or matters important for many people. This film may also be based on some interesting books by a famous author. The film you intend to speak about also may contain useful info or strong quotes about life-important matters. Emphasize such and bring it to your reviewers.

• Creative elements 

Frequently, filmmakers include various elements to make their movies more fascinating and interesting for the audience. Describe such distinctive elements. What special events or charters they have emphasized? How were these features explored in this movie? Did they reach their purpose or not? What atmosphere can such elements create? What sounds were the effects used in this movie? You may describe any feature that added value to this movie; even camera movements sometimes make a difference. There also may be various symbols and notes. Be attentive here and notice such features to speak about them.

• Actors

You should mention about actors that appeared in this movie also. Was their acting professional and appropriate to the plot of a movie? What distinctive features they had in this movie? How do you assess their performance? Was such truly remarkable? Write about all such pieces this film had.

Tips on How to Write a Good Movie Review

You may find a lot of info on crafting reviews. But, here, we will give you tested approaches on how to write a good movie review.

To make a good movie review, we suggest you passing these simple steps:

• Watch a movie/documentary first

Even if you have watched this movie/documentary once or two and are confident about its content, we suggest you look through it again for refreshing memories. This matters for reflecting all elements appropriately. If you have not watched this movie/film, surely do this. Using various ready reviews may save you only partially. Your review will lack personal considerations and feelings about the story of a movie.

• Make your research

You need to include a lot of details about a movie/documentary in your review. So, you need to be sure such are accurate and taken from reliable sources. Why do you need that? This information may provide you details about actors, locations, peculiarities of filming, history, plot, and other matters that can be relevant to your review. You need to form a clear picture of how this film has appeared in the exact form it exists now.

• Analyze your target movie thoroughly 

We suggest you not begin work until becoming sure you understand in full this movie/documentary. Assess this movie from the start to its final. If you need this, watch this movie once or twice. 

• Writing process itself 

Draft your essay and express there your thoughts and impressions about the target movie/documentary. Make special emphasis on the originality of your movie and the quality of the main scenes. Indicate whether you like this movie or not and state reasons why. We suggest you revise this draft a couple of times to polish your essay.

A Good Movie Review Example for Your Reference

To ensure your writing process’s certainty, we have prepared for you a good movie review example.

Mulan 

This movie originates from a Disney cartoon with the same title. Still, the recently presented movie is far more alive and vital. Mulan was one of the most expected in 2020 and presented good considerations about what is courage and dignity.

Its director Niki Caro shared in a new manner the classical story of one young Chinese girl who appears like a man for becoming a warrior. The story is fascinating from the start and up to its end. It is also full of traditional features of Chinese culture and details that help bring spirit into scenes.

The movie is full of innovative actions and special effects. Its directors included much aerial work, dances, and amazing scenes with martial arts. In this movie, various battles are shown in a realistic manner. This film’s budget was spent also involving a great amount of stuff, horses, requisites, and other things.

The story is centered on a young girl Yifei Liu. She transforms from a young and non-skilled to a really mature warrior and a true leader. Notably that during this story, a girl finds her voice and a manner of expression.

The film was made truly remarkably. It has a good background, the elaboration of a plot when Liu decided to become a warrior. The story was also expressed on how she became such a warrior gradually, her courage during fights. The scenes enabled the expression of the human and warrior dignity this girl had inside.

The development of the main character also aligns with the development of a plot. During the calm times, Mulan appeared as a playful and joyful girl who climbed roofs nearly acrobatically. After the first plot twist was made, Mulan turned to be more serious as she realized that the traditional woman’s honor of being married is not for her. After her wounded father, who had no sons, got a notice to appear as a warrior, she secretly took this notice and left her father’s house for appearing instead of him. That was her pass for becoming a truly skilled warrior. In the outcome, Mulan managed to show more than successfully all her abilities during the fights.

The main actress’s performance could be even more powerful if she paid more attention to her emotions and expressed them more freely. But, she appeared as a true fighter in the outcome. Liu was stood for her family and managed to stand still before many skilled men. She managed to act in a manner that made men listen and follow her. 

This movie and a character are centered around the inner power that lives in each human and woman. The film is great for inspiration and presents a good example of how a person who wants to achieve something overcomes any difficulties. Mulan is about brevity, dignity, and self-development. It is a movie worth seeing and following in specific aspects.

Final Words about Movie Reviews

Movie reviews are good chances for exploring certain plots and presenting your points of view. These essays give chances to speak about things that interest you sincerely. This writing is more descriptive in nature and is comparatively easy to prepare. Still, if you notice difficulties, you may always refer here again for refreshing advice or get our movie review help and other professional services shortly.