A movie review is an article describing and evaluating a film. You can publish it on a website, blog, magazine or newspaper. It can also be part of scholarly work. In a movie review, you give your opinion on various aspects of a movie that you watched. Some instances need you to give a score (e.g 3 out of 5 stars). For other reviews, you need to give recommendations.

You can review any movie whether it is brilliant or boring. Any movie that people watch is worth a critique. It is important that you write a good a reader engaging review. Remember that some of them have not watched the movie and depend on you to know what it is about. You will write an outstanding review by doing the following:

Know the basics of film-making.

It is not a must for you to have experience in film-making but it is essential to have basic knowledge about the technicalities. Start to write a movie when you know something about sound, cinematography, lighting and film music. Knowledge of these aspects helps you to make informed comments. You increase your chances to write a good movie review if you have more knowledge about filmmaking craft. In addition to the idea, there are so many things that affecting a movie's quality. An idea could be good but you should know that the end product depends on how other people such as the actors and editors do their roles. Anyone can watch a movie and write a review but knowledge of technical matters will make a review better.

Use a strong lead

A well-written movie review should is informative. You should persuade and give an original opinion without giving away much of the plot. An excellent movie review is artistic in its own way. Watch the movie keenly and form an opinion. When writing about your opinion, start with a strong lead that attracts the attention of readers and interests them to keep on reading. You can achieve this through different approaches such as using a quote from the movie, compare it to a famous film, or refer to the brilliance of its director or starring actor. Write a short but powerful lead that shows whether the movie met your expectations.

Judge the story in a balanced way

Review actions of the characters and decide if they fit their roles well and if the motive is reasonable. Review about the consistency in the way everyone behaves and note if some actions or words seem false. Inform your reader whether the movie’s story line is logical, economic, poor or outright pointless.

Rate the actors

Your review should rate the performance by the actors. If they are too many, rate the main ones. Let the reader know if the meet the expectation that the movie’s plot and other elements dictate. A good review should include the reason for any shortcomings by the actors. You should write if it is a mistake by the actors, the director or the scriptwriter. You review will be more informative if you suggest what each person should have done better. Remember to also rate the technical matters as they also play a role.

Write for your target reader

Write your review with the reader in mind. Write a very balanced review if it is for readers of traditional publications. This does not mean you cannot condemn incompetence .Do not make it the entire subject. You can write more critical reviews when writing for modern platforms like movie review websites. However, you should back your criticism or compliment with valid observations.

A good review summarizes the movie but does not give the major elements away. It instead informs readers whether the movie meets expectations.

Have a look at our sample Academic writing services page for guidance.