Movie Review

What is Movie Review?

Review originally comes from a verb in Latin “revidere” or “recensere” or “recensie” in
Dutch. All of them mean to review, judge, and grade. Therefore, movie review means: to give
a judgment, to grade, to look back at the content of the movie, to criticize and to interpret
the movie. The movie review mainly aims to inform the content of the movie to the society.

A. The Goal of Movie Review

Before reviewing a movie, a reviewer should have recognized the aims of reviewing a movie.
There are some aims of reviewing a movie:
1. To give information and comprehensive understanding about what is seen and
exposed from a movie.
2. To ask the watchers to think and discuss further the phenomenon or problems which
appear in the movie.
3. To give a consideration to the watchers in which a movie deserves to be watch or not.
4. To answer such questions:
• Who is the director?
• What are the messages of the movie?
• What is the summary of the movie?
• How’s the setting?
• etc
5. To give the watchers:
• Guidance in watching and buying a movie.
• Influence in order to watch a movie.
• Information about the content of a movie, when the watcher doesn’t have time
to watch a movie.

B. The Basics of Movie Review

The basics of movie review are:

1. The reviewer should understand comprehensively the aims of the movie.
2. The reviewer should realize the aim of the review, thus will affect the pattern of the
review.
3. The reviewer should know the background of the audience; education, social status,
etc.
4. The review should understand the characteristics of the media which will issue the
review. Each media has its own “vision” and “mission”. As a result, the reviewer will
know the media’s policies toward a review.

C. The Strengths of the Movie Review

1. Up-to-date
Compared with news, articles and features, the movie review will stay longer. It means
that if a review is refused by a media, it can be sent to another media. We can make a
review not only for a new movie but also for an old movie.
2. Enlarge the Knowledge
The information of a movie will be very useful to enlarge our knowledge and
sharpening our critical ability.

D. The Review Pattern

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There are three patterns of the movie review: making summary, describing, and interpreting.
1. Making Summary
A movie usually provides many problems. The reviewer should make a summary of
the problems. Thus, the reviewer should choose the significant thing of the problem.
2. Describing
Describing means explain the most important features of the summary.
3. Interpreting
It means that the reviewer should give his/her interpretation towards:
• The contents of the statement or the movie which has been simplified and
described.
• Judgment, it involves the reviewer’s impression towards the movie, especially
the strengths and weaknesses.

E. Steps of Reviewing a Movie

The steps of reviewing a movie are:

1. Knowing the movies
• Started from theme of the movie, with its description.
• Who the director is; name, education background, reputation and achievement,
and why she/he wrote the movie.
• The sort of the theme: politic, economic, education, literature, language, or
sociology.
2. Watching the movie comprehensively, and in details. The problems in the movie need
to be understood accurately.
3. Note some parts of the movie which need special attention. We need them as our
data.
4. Making a summary or essence of the movie.
5. Deciding and judging:
• Content of the statement: the quality, the analysis, the presentation of the
data, and the creativity
• Technical aspects; lighting, effects, etc
Before making the review, it’s better to make the outline of the review. It’ll be very
helpful for us when we write the review.
6. Correcting and revise our review based on the criteria we’ve made before.

F. The Elements of Movie Review

We have to know the elements to build a movie review. What are the elements of the movie
review?
1. Creating the title of the review
An interesting title of movie review doesn’t have to be decided before writing a movie
review. The title can be decided after finishing the review. The title of the movie
review must be in accordance with the content of the review.
2. Arranging the movie’s data
The movie’s data are usually arranged as follows:
• The title of the movie (if the movie was translated from another language, we
should write the original title).
• Director.
• Technical aspects.
• Duration.
3. Creating a lead (opening)
A lead can be started with:
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 •Introducing the Director, about his/her works, and his/her achievements.
•Comparing with the similar movies; both written by the same or different
authors.
• Explaining the specification and the special characteristics of the director.
• Explaining the movie’s uniqueness. Title
• Deciding the theme of the movie.
• Giving the critics toward the weaknesses of the movie.
Movie’s
• Expressing his/her impression towards the movie.
data
• Asking questions.
Lead/O The
• Opening dialogue. Structure
pening
4. Body or content of the movie review of the
Body or content of the review usually consists of:Conten Movie
• Summary and the contents of the movie. t
• The strengths of the movie.
• The technical aspects of the movie. Closing
5. The closing of a review
The closing usually consists of the importance of the movie to be watch: for whom and
why.

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