CaptainD’s Guide to Writing A Very Helpful Movie Review
Jul 27 '04
The Bottom Line After 79 "Very Helpful" rated movie reviews, I guess I'm reasonably qualified to write this! :-)
CaptainD’s Guide to Writing A Very Helpful Movie Review
Writing style and personal taste not withstanding, this is a brief guide to what should be in your movie review to make it Very Helpful.
Plot Synopsis
Some members make the mistake of relating practically the whole plot, and often an otherwise very good review gets rated “Helpful” or even “Somewhat Helpful” because of this. Other reviews contain no plot details at all and suffer the same fate. Epinions itself is partly to blame for this – one of the options in the drop-down menu when posting your review is “This review reveals everything about the plot”. (I have in fact used this once – but that was my Lost In Translation, and the point I was making was that the film had no plot anyway…) Generally, what is needed is a brief plot synopsis – usually I find the best method is to give the opening scenario in a relatively detailed way, then a couple of vague questions / phrases that suggest what happens throughout the film without giving anything of note away. (Don’t forget, no matter how well known the film is you’re reviewing, there will still be some people that have never seen it!) If you feel you must give away key aspects of the plot, always give a spoiler warning beforehand – but in general, avoid giving away important plot details that aren’t made obvious in the first quarter of an hour of the film.
Cast
How detailed you are in your evaluation of the cast is up to you, but always include at least some analysis of the performances by the key cast members. Including other films the actor / actress has been in by putting them in parentheses after their names is a good idea at times (particularly with less well known thespians), but avoid having a review that is one long name-dropping exercise - I have occasionally seen reviews that barely do anything but list other films the actors have been in, which does not make a Very Helpful or even a Helpful review.
There’s nothing wrong with copying the cast list from IMDB or whatever to include it at the end of your review, but this should only be done to augment an already good review – it is not a substitute for analytical reviewing.
Crew
It’s amazing how often reviewers on epinions (myself included at times) forget the crew – without whom, after all, the cast would be nothing. How good / bad was the direction? What about the choreography? Cinematography? Costumes? Sets? The special effects do get mentioned frequently, but what about the less obvious aspects of the film?
(NB – putting in details like this shows you were paying attention… :-P)
Comparisons
If you’ve seen several similar films, how does the film you’re reviewing compare to them? (Comparisons with other films by the same Director / with the same lead actor / etc can also be useful, but use your discretion as to whether they are actually pertinent details or not.)
Ranting – DON’T DO IT!!
If you really hated a film, it can be tempting to just rant about it. However, this rarely leads to a good review – just a good rant! The important thing is to retain objectivity – so while you can still be as vitriolic as you like, do it in a way that still focuses on reviewing the film, rather than simply berating it.
Rate Honestly
You might be tempted sometimes to give a film a better rating than it deserves, hoping that you’ll make more money out of it that way – don’t. Not only is it not necessarily true (my Lost In Translation review was my highest earner for a while despite the fact that I slated it), but you’ll lose the respect of other members. And remember, respect is much easier to lose than gain!
Take Notice Of Comments
If your review isn’t yet Very Helpful, chances are at least one person will leave a comment with a suggestion on how to improve it. Take the advice in good faith and apply it if you can, and email everyone who rated you less than VH when you update. If your review isn’t rated VH but no-one’s told you why, send an email to some / all of the members who’ve rated you, politely asking them why. After all, if you don’t know what you’re doing wrong, how can you stop doing it?
DVD Reviews
Beware of the option to say what format you watched the film on – if you say DVD but only review the film, without mentioning the DVD extras, you may get lower ratings even if your actual review is brilliant. So if you are reviewing the film only, it’s better to leave to leave the format blank and not say you watched it on DVD.
(Also beware of reviewing the film only on DVD Special Editions – you’ll get bad marks for that – make sure you find the category for the basic film before posting your review.)
Take a lesson from the best
There are some terrific movie reviewers here on eps, but I’m just going to suggest a few of my favourite writers:
Dragonfire88
Jedikermit
Cripper
Metalluk
Darkofnight
Rock_On
(If I’ve left you out, don’t be offended! I didn’t want to have a never-ending list here!!)
My Best Movie Review
I can't decide between my reviews of Troy and Return of the King. There are quite a few I've been very happy with... and at least as many I haven't been so happy with...
My Worst Movie Review
Easy - my second one - Never Been Kissed - the only one that still only has an overall rating of "Helpful"!.
That’s All Folks…
That’s the main points covered, I think. Honestly, once you’ve written a few movie reviews, you’ll get a good idea of what’s needed. This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive dissertation on the subject, but I hope this has been of some help to newer members at least.
If you have any more questions please leave a comment or email me at poetofthecentury@aol.com.
Thanks for reading,
CaptainD
Other Member Advice Articles
These are my articles I've written to help members (mainly new ones, but not necessarily) to make the most of their stay at epinions, and to share what I laughingly call my wisdom...
CaptainD’s Guide to Epinions – Second Edition - a general guide to epinions, what it is, how to be a success here, etc.
CaptainD’s Guide to Writing A Really Bad Review - self-explantory really - what not to do when you're writing a review!
CaptainD’s Guide to Building a WOT - What is a WOT? How do you build one? And why should you? All is revealed...
The Ten Commandments of Epinions - well okay, there are 11 - things that'll help you be a success and most of all enjoy being part of the epinions community.
CaptainD's Guide to Hosting A Write Off - everything you ever wanted to know about hosting a WO (apart from anything I've forgotten...)
CaptainD's Guide to Joining A Write Off - everything you ever wanted to know about joining a WO...
You need a personality to begin with to develop one on epinions... - all you need to know about "developing" an epinions personality...
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