How to write film analysis?

Analysis & opinion: Too often, we see reviews where only the concluding paragraphs give us a summary of what the writer thought of the film. Lest we forget, we are a REVIEW site and that means we are looking for *opinions* of things, not *descriptions* of things. This should not be the smallest part of the review that gets the least amount of thought put into it. Terse concluding paragraphs with things like "I really liked this movie, it was fun and I loved watching X in the part because he/she's so gorgeous" or "this was the worst movie I've ever seen, I don't know why I paid good money to see it and even the popcorn was burnt" are not really what your readers want. Okay, so this does qualify as "opinion", but it certainly doesn't qualify as analysis. Although we get the idea that the writer did or didn't like the film, we haven't a clue why this was so. It is the "why" that makes the big difference between a good review and a useless one.

Many things can go into telling us why you did or didn't like a film. Perhaps you have an opinion about any of the following things: special effects, costumes, acting, directing, teamwork, soundtrack, makeup, story line, scenery, settings, animation, editing, script, sound or lighting. Of course, you don't have to touch on all these things, but certainly picking out a few of those things from this list that struck you in particular might be helpful to your readers. This doesn't mean you can get away with saying just "X was good" or "Y was bad", you should try to tell us why you thought or felt that way. One option is to compare some of these elements to similar genre films, films with the same director, or even previous/later movie versions of the same story. One of my favourite elements is analyzing the teamwork of a film. This is how the actors work together as a team as evident by on-screen chemistry. Analyzing this seems to help show how good/bad the director is as well as how good/bad the script is. If the movie is based on a book I've read, I will probably also go into how well or badly it was adapted for the screen.

Finally, regarding the DVD elements – ever since DooYoo eliminated the VHS category, I've given up looking for information regarding the DVDs on these reviews. If they're there, that's nice; if they're not, then that's fine too. I do like to note if the movie is available on DVD or not, and if so, where you can buy it and how much it might cost – but that isn't in the meat of my review. I also really don't care about the special bonus features on DVDs unless it is a very extra-special edition (like the special 4 disk DVD of Gone With the Wind) that I'm reviewing, but I won't rate you down if you include it. However, if that's the only thing you're talking about, I don't think I'd find the review all that useful – unless you tell me at the start that you're reviewing the special DVD and NOT the film.

In sum, I look for clear and very concise plot summary that highlights the main conflict and perhaps a main character or two, lots and lots and LOTS of analysis of why the writer liked or didn't like the film, and a short conclusion that gives the main plusses and minuses of that film. I don't want to read about what you had for lunch the day you saw the film, I don't need to have a blow-by-blow of the action, I don't want to know how the movie ends and I don't want to read about the characters as if you were listing the song tracks on a music CD. I won't fault you if you give me web page information, extras on the DVD or where you can buy it and for how much, but I also won't fault you if you don't – in any case, that should be a very minor part of the review (except where reviewing boxed DVD sets).

I hope this helps some of you understand why I rate movie reviews the way that I do, and perhaps some of you will get some useful information from this to make your own movie reviews better. It has taken me a long time to learn this, and I can clearly see that when I stray from this formula, I risk not getting a crown for that review. Of course, I don't always get crowns on all my movie reviews that I write this way – but that's life!