Who wouldn’t like to watch a favorite movie on a rainy Saturday in the company of good friends? You can hardly find a person who doesn’t like watching movies at all. Some people watch films just for entertainment, and others to get food for thought. If you like movies, you will probably be happy to be assigned with a movie review essay. Compared to many other academic tasks, this one is very interesting. Actually, what is a film review essay?
In todays’ world, movies are discussed and evaluated as other types of art. After watching a film, you give it an assessment during the discussion with friends and family. Typically, you just tell them if the film is worth watching. However, some people, like professional film reviewers, give an extended analysis for films. You can try it yourself as a reviewer when you are assigned with a review. If this is the case, read our advice on how to cope with this task below.
The Recipe of a Stunning Film Review
Ingredients:
- A movie
- The Internet
- A notebook
- A pen
- A laptop
Time that you will need: ~ 4-6 hours (depends on the length of the movie).
A tip: you should always take breaks after each step. After some steps, you can take short breaks (10-15 minutes), and after others, long breaks (an hour or a couple of hours). It depends on the intensity of the activity.
Preparations:
- Choose a movie. If you instructor hasn’t assigned you with an essay on a specific film, you need to choose the film on your own. We recommend that you write a review on the movie that you hate the most. This way, your review will be more critical. If you select your favorite movie, you will turn a blind eye to many negative characteristics.
- Find out the details of the assignment. You should ask your teacher about the length of your work, about the deadline, and about other obligatory points that he or she expects to see in your paper.
- Find appropriate sources. If you don’t want your review to look amateurish, you should get acquainted with filmmaking theory framework. Ask you instructor what sources you can use or find sources on the Web on your own.
- Look through the examples. Before you start writing your own movie review essay, you should look at the examples of reviews that were completed by well-known film critics. At this step, you shouldn’t read reviews on the movie you are going to write about, because you might plagiarize other reviews even unwittingly.
Cooking:
- Watch the movie for the first time. If you watch the movie for the first time, then just watch it without making any notes. You should make a general opinion about the film. If you pay attention to little details, you might lose the gist.
- Write down impressions from the first watching. You should write down your impression after watching. To cope with this, answer these questions:
- Did you like the movie?
- What exactly did you like or dislike? (the plot, the sound, the actors’ play, the cinematography, costume design)
- What feelings did you experience while watching the film?
- Investigate the background of the director and actors. Look through reviews on other films of the same director. Have film critics mentioned something specific that you also noticed in the movie? If this director is a debutant, has he or she coped with the challenge? What about the actors? Compare their acting in the movie to other movies they starred in.
Note: if you would like to know how to write a movie review essay quickly, you should read a different article. In this article, we are trying to show you how to complete a high-quality review. If you don’t have experience in writing this type of paper, you won’t be able to complete a high quality review quickly. In this case, be ready to spend a couple of hours. We can only recommend that you skip the first three steps from this section if you are severely lacking in time.
- Watch the movie for the second time. This time you should make notes while watching. We suggest that you divide the pages of your notebook into six columns:
- Cinematography
- Actors’ play
- The sound
- Plot
- Costume design
- Direction
During the second viewing, you should pay attention to the details. Press ‘pause’ when needed. This viewing might take you much longer than the first one, because you will need to watch some scenes several times over. In each column, write down what you like and dislike for each category. Also, don’t forget to write the accurate time of the scenes you mention.
- Start writing a movie review essay. Now, you can start completing your work. While writing, you should keep these points in mind:
- Be consistent. You should define your main idea and follow it to the end of your review. Try to have a specific order. For example, each section (or paragraph) is dedicated to each category (direction, cinematography, etc.).
- Follow citation rules. If you would like to, you can cite other reviews provided that you follow all citation rules. Also, try not to transform your review into the collection of other reviews.
- Try to generalize. You shouldn’t say that, for example, at the twentieth minute of the film, a microphone appears for a second. You should say that the camera work leaves something to be desired, and give examples of how the cinematography fails by not mentioning all the scenes, but only the most important ones.
- Check for mistakes. Do not skip this step. Even if you only have a few hours before the deadline, you should leave ten minutes for proofreading. If you have enough time, proofread your paper yourself and then ask someone else to do it.
Are You Lacking Confidence?
Hopefully, you now know how to write a movie review essay. The sample of this kind of essay can also be found on our blog. If you still have difficulties with your movie essay after reading the article and taking a look at the samples, we can help you in another way. You can buy an essay online for cheap from the WritingCheap service. Our experienced and highly qualified writers are able to cope with any task for any academic level. Do not hesitate to make an order if you are having trouble with your academic paper! We are available 24/7!