Want to know how to write a movie review? Some professors ask for a five-paragraph essay, and other times they ask for a movie review that is set out like a book review. In this article, we explain how to write a movie review, and we give a few tips and tricks that will help guarantee you get at least a passing grade for your project. Specifically, we explain how to do a movie review without losing marks.
The Biggest Marks Loser Is…
Regular reviews that you see online should not spoil the movie, which means it shouldn’t give away plot points that will spoil the movie.
- If you spoil the movie with your online review, then your viewers will hate you.
- If you spoil the movie with your academic text, then your professor will mark you down and/or you will not be able to reach the highest marks.
What If My Professor Asks for A Plot Synopsis?
How do you avoid giving away spoilers if your professor has explicitly asked for a plot synopsis? Over time, you will learn how to review a movie without giving away the plot. The key is to not give away the twist, and you shouldn’t give away major plot points. As you learn how to review a movie, you also learn the movie writer’s and director’s intentions, which helps you recognize which are major plot developments.
Take the example of the 2011 Captain America movie. The posters show a large muscular hero, so it is fair to tell the audience that the plucky young man becomes the hero through his own sense of justice and a super soldier treatment. You may mention in your plot synopsis that the Tesseract is unearthed, which contains massive power, and that an offshoot of the Nazi party wishes to use it as a weapon of mass destruction. What you wouldn’t mention is how the biggest enemy has also received the same treatment as Captain America, and that Captain America’s friend dies, and that Captain America dies.
You Can Guarantee A Top Mark
This article has taught you some of the very basics on how to write a movie review. If you are struggling with how to start a movie review, and your friends will not show you how to start a movie review, you should hand off your project to our Assignment Service. Their writers have the experience, knowledge, and qualifications to spot the points that other reviewers will miss. They will make high-scoring points, and they may even teach you a few things about reviewing movies that you didn’t know before you started.
How to Comment on Twists That You Shouldn’t Mention
Sometimes, the twist or a major plot point will form a massive part of the movie, which you will have to spoil in order to comment upon it. Whether you are learning how to do a movie review for a college course, or you are learning how to write a movie review to post online, learning how to comment on big-reveal plot points without spoiling them is what separates great reviewers from mediocre ones, and it is something you only learn through experience. If you want to see how “Not” to do it, then watch YouTube videos on movie trailers that gave away the twist.
Recognize Intentionally Meaningful Shooting Techniques
For example, in the early Amityville movies, the camera tracks from above the protagonist’s head more than once. This shows that the ghostly omnipotent force is watching the protagonist. It may also indicate a sense that the omnipotent force is better, stronger, larger than the protagonist.
Recognize Intentionally Meaningful Post Editing Techniques
For example, in the movie the Matrix, the scenes within the Matrix have a green tinge to them to show the viewer that this is not the real world. The green tinge/tint helps remind the user that what they are seeing doesn’t conform to the standard rules of our universe. During the most unbelievable scenes, the directors added a stronger tint to readily remind the viewer that what they are seeing is not real (even if the danger is real).
Recognize Cliché Shooting Techniques
Learning to recognize shooting techniques is one thing, especially if they are good because you can explain why they worked, but do not be afraid to condemn the use of cliché shooting techniques.
For example, since the movie “The Shining,” it has now become cliché to show people traveling in a car with an overhead tracking shot while music plays. It is just one overused shooting technique that you should notice and comment on. Another cliché is rain and black umbrellas at a funeral.
Recognize Movie Tropes as Intentional (Even If They Appear Cheap)
There is a difference between clichés and movie tropes. You may fail to gain marks if you criticize a movie trope that was put into the movie intentionally. The most commonly criticized trope is the Wilhelm scream, which some students do not realize is a movie tradition. Another trope is to have a dog die in a horror movie as a way of broadcasting that what you are watching a horror movie.
A very common trope is to have the most confident person, usually, the bad guy/gal, eat something. It used to be an apple, but nowadays it has been warped to everything from a carrot in “A Good Day to Die Hard” to a doughnut in “Iron Man.”