So, you've been asked to write a movie review. How to approach this assignment? Writing a movie review is a common task students of different academic levels get. You may face this task both in high school and when you are already in college.
In a nutshell, when writing a movie review, your main task is to reflect your opinions of the piece and evaluate it according to certain criteria. You are expected to define, analyze, and assess the core elements and significant details. These may be twists in the plot, characters, the central message, etc.
Sounds pretty easy, right? Wrong guess! Although it may seem like a generally simple task, writing a movie review goes much deeper than simply recounting the events you see on the screen and formulating your opinion.
It takes time, attention to detail, and solid organization to get things right. But do not get desperate just yet! If you are wondering how to write a movie review, you've come to the right place!
In this article, our expert writers will guide you through the process of writing a top-notch piece, worthy of the highest grade.
Writing any type of academic assignment, it is vital to keep the task's purpose in mind in order to get a high grade. The same applies to a film review. Thus, before we go on and discuss in detail how to review a movie, let's clarify the core purpose of this assignment.
In a nutshell, the main purpose of this task is to inform the audience about a particular movie and its core ides. At the same time, this task leaves you space to express your own opinion about the piece you are reviewing.
However, the key thing is not to get too much into discussing your own thoughts. One should also retain an objective and unbiased approach. If you can combine to all, you'll write a great review!
While working on your review, keep in mind that you are supposed to introduce a particular film to your readers. Always assume they haven't heard of it or seen it before. Such an approach will make it much easier to discuss and analyze the events taking place in the movie. You should also conduct character analysis and reflect on the core ideas.
The last thing worth keeping in mind is that the ultimate goal of your review is to help readers make an objective decision on whether they want to see a particular movie or whether they'd like it.
The main reason why teachers and professors assign students with this type of task is to assess their critical thinking skills. Lecturers want to see your ability to analyze a plot and characters, define main ideas, report events, and give an objective assessment of the piece based on all these characteristics. At the same time, they want to see whether you can cope with all these subtasks in a logical, easy to understand, cohesive, and engaging manner.
The format of your movie review may vary depending on your lecturer's specific demands. Thus, it is vital that you check with the provided requirements and guidelines prior to writing.
Typically, this type of paper is fairly short - about 600 to 1200 words. The structure of a standard movie review consists of an introduction, a summary of a film in question, an analysis, and a conclusion.
As for the contents of your piece, it should provide a general summary of the narrative part (the plot.) Then, you should highlight the specific elements that can be divided into two categories:
To start a movie review paper, you should watch the piece as many times as possible and take notes of all your impressions. You can even collect verdicts from fellow students or friends to have opinions from more than one source. Additionally, you will have to take notes on various significant elements and background details.
Here are some of the main questions to help you write the critique faster and not miss out on the important details:
As was already mentioned, a typical structure of a film review consists of five elements. Now, let's look at each section of this paper in detail.
The introduction is the first thing your readers will go through. Thus, it is important to make it catchy as possible to make your audience engaged from the very first lines.
In the first section of your essay, provide some general information about the movie you are going to review. Make sure you mention the title, director, year, main actors, and screenwriter.
Apart from the background information, your introduction should begin to offer an evaluation of the movie. Therefore, it may be longer than one paragraph. This type of paper does not need to include a thesis statement as it is. However, it should contain the central idea of the review.
This part of the paper is aimed to give your readers a general sense of what a particular film is about. Writing this section, you should assume that the audience may not have seen the film just yet.
Thus, your goal is to provide them with a plot summary. At the same time, be sure to keep it concise and not delve into too many specific details. Otherwise, you may spoil their experience from viewing the film.
While the previous section shares the summary of the main events, the description part should focus on your personal cinematic experience.
This is where you should include your own thoughts and opinions on things like acting, cinematography, music, special effects, costumes, main characters, and the author's style. Also, be sure to specify your overall impression on how the movie feels, sounds, and looks like.
This is the section where you will be discussing and evaluating how well a particular movie utilizes thematic content and formal techniques. Your task is to highlight these techniques and analyze how their use affects the overall impression the film makes.
The final part of your paper should remind the readers of your overall opinion of the movie. At this point, you can also offer some recommendations.
You can state whether you think a particular film is or is not worth seeing. However, regardless of your statement, be sure to back it up, explaining the reasons why you do or don't recommend watching a certain film.
Follow this guide to write a flawless film review:
Unless you are assigned to review a specific film, your first step is choosing what artwork exactly you want to discuss. Make sure you pick a movie that is interesting for you and of a genre that you are fairly familiar with.
To write a good review, you will need to watch the whole thing, and, most likely, you'll need to do it not once.
Take your time to watch the movie as many times as you need to grasp the general idea and main elements. Also, don't hesitate to take notes on everything that has significance or value for your future review
Before you move on to the writing process, be sure to note your reaction and impression right after you watched the film. Write down whether you liked it or not, and specify what exactly you did or didn't like.
Making an outline will help you ensure a logical flow of your paper and will make the writing process much simpler. To create a detailed outline, you can check standard movie review elements discussed earlier in this article.
The title of your review should be intriguing and attention-grabbing. It is a good idea to play off a title of the movie or a quote from it.
When writing your paper, carefully follow the outline. Make sure your paper follows the right structure and contains the following points:
Finally, before you hand in your review, be sure to set it aside for a few days and then proofread it with a fresh eye.
Hopefully, this guide will help you cope with writing a top-notch movie review quickly and easily. Now, let's recall the main tips and tricks and define what you should and should not do while working on an awesome film review.
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