A movie with hundreds of thousands of views is worth analyzing, or isn’t it? Whether it’s an epic show on Netflix or a single on Amazon Prime, if people are watching, there is something worth saying about it.
Look at Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic. They’re platforms for the movie fanatics who don’t hold back their breath and thoughts after a 2-hour long flick.
How they tear down movies and TV show in extremely incredible, with their thoughts quite so authentic enough to appear on such respected platforms.
It’s not just on Meta Critic and Rotten Tomatoes that movie reviews appear. Even your instructor in college may ask you to do is as part of your assignment. Which is why it’s important to learn how to write a movie review for college.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to review a movie without trying so hard. You’ll learn the exact steps to follow. Plus, some tips to help you write a movie review that simply stands out.
What is a Movie Review?
A movie review is a holistic assignment where you have to watch a movie and share your opinion about it.
Quite too often, you’ll have to concentrate on the creative aspect of the story in the movie, although it’s not uncommon for your instructor to ask you to analyze the technical aspect of the assignment as well.
Even more significantly is that you have to provide objective evidence to defend your view.
What’s the Purpose of a Movie Review?
The purpose of a movie review is to help an audience or readers to determine whether a certain movie is worth watching in the first place. Since there are just too many movies to watch these days, reviews let people know whether a particular show is interesting or otherwise.
As far as writing a movie review is concerned, it’s important to know that there’s no such thing as a wrong point of view.
At the end of the day, people have varied opinion about what they see and perceive, which is totally acceptable when it comes to reviewing a movie.
In other words, your point of view will highly depend on how you choose to demonstrate your opinion and partly on your attention to details.
A Guide to write a Movie Review for College
Writing a movie review may not be as fun as your 2-hour long or so flick. But if you follow our step-by-step guide to writing movie reviews, you stand the chance to earn the best grades for the assignment.
You need to have a holistic approach to the assignment. In other words, the way you handle the work should demonstrate your critical thinking, analytical skills, and ability to think outside the box.
Therefore, below is how to approach your movie review assignment:
Step 1 Watch the Movie
It’s tempting to read reviews about the movie in question online and write your own version from the material. But that’s not exactly the right approach for the assignment. Why? It’s because you have to come up with your very own unique critique, so exercising vigilance is quite significant in this case.
So instead of compiling tons of reviews on the movie from different sources, set aside some time to watch the film from start to finish.
We advise that you watch the movie more than once. Your first round should be to get a clear idea of what the movie is all about. This way, you can be able to briefly explain the primary theme of the film, if not in its entirety.
Watch the movie for a second time, and, this time, take notes. Write down your thoughts on what you see and hear. Focus on critical dialogues, important scenes, technical aspects, and significant character in the film. If you noticed some common patterns in the movie, write them down. If the movie made you feel a certain way, be sure to note that down.
It’s hard to conclude that you can collect all that information by simply watching the movie once or twice. If you can, fine. If you can’t, don’t beat yourself up. Watch as many times as you like so that you can collect the most critical information to use to write your review.
Step 2 Add Some Background Research
While the film is your go-to source for the assignment, it may not be enough to write a solid review. Dive into some background research to learn more about the movie beyond what you’ve seen on the screen.
When did the movie come out? Who was the director? Where was the film shot? What do you think is the writer and director’s objective with the movie?
As you can see, you’re collective valuable information that you can use to add more insights to your movie review.
Step 3 Analyze the Movie
Next, analyze the movie keenly. It’s important to do so in parts to get this right. Consider evaluating the most critical elements of the film.
For example:
- Was the costume design and shooting locations appropriate for the theme of the film?
- Did the actors perform their roles well?
- Did the directors do a good job in translating the script into a film?
- What’s your opinion on the scripts, music, and the editing?
By the end of your analysis, you should have sufficient information to use to write a good review for the movie.
Step 4 Create an Outline for Your Movie Review
Now that you’ve watched the movie, done some background research, and analyzed the movie, it’s time to take that information and put it into an outline.
Outlining shouldn’t take much of your time. Create your subheadings and include the most important points under each.
Your movie review will be a 5-paragraph essay. It should have an introduction, three body paragraphs (with a summary, analysis, and your opinion), and a conclusion paragraph.
Step 5 Write Your Movie Review
Now it’s time to take the points in your outline and put them into words.
When writing the review, try to stick to the word count suggested in the prompt. And even if there isn’t a suggested word limit for the essay, don’t make the assignment unnecessarily too long.
If it helps, take breaks in between writing so that you can do a better job.