6 Steps to Write a Movie Review Essay
Watch a film and make notes
Before writing a movie review, the first step is to watch the analyzed movie. It is also important to note the main topics that should be addressed in the future when writing your essay. This is the main phase in the process of creating a review. Be quick to rewatch the film as many times as necessary to form more consistent and accurate thoughts about the project.
Gather the main facts about the film
The next step in an essay movie review is to find technical characteristics and curiosities about the film. There are several things you can look for and should know about the movie in question, for example:
- Gender;
- Title and year;
- Names of the main actors;
- Director's name;
- Title of book (if based on a book).
It's important always to put this information in your essay movie review to inform your readers consistently and helpfully.
Make a review outline
You should start writing all the ideas for your essay on paper, making an outline with opinions and important parts of the film that should be included in your review. Or you also can use or write a movie review template. You can refer to this draft to remember all critical topics in your movie review outline when writing the text.
Structure your text properly
That is the movie review structure:
- Introduction – For movie reviews, start your text with some hook or curious fact to bring the reader's attention to the movie. You can describe an impactful scene or some quote that marked you during the experience. Also, don't forget to contextualize and bring a brief summary of the film.
- Body - This is the most important part of an essay about a movie. You must bring all the notes and impressions you recorded while watching that film. However, it is important to bring a concise, informative, and meaningful approach to a review of a film. Tell the facts you liked the most, the reasons, and those parts you didn't like, and exemplify them.
- Conclusion - Finalize your work so that it seems to make sense, and has logic and purpose. In conclusion, in your essay on a movie, you will be able to make an overview, issue your final thoughts and consequently recommend (or not) that film. You can also indicate which target audience the movie will work best for.
Write your text
Start writing your review based on the draft you've already made. However, this time, we used the correct script and movie review format we mentioned earlier. Another significant thing is not to talk only about the plot, as it can often be subjective. You should address other film features to make your review more complete and attractive. That's how to write!
Here are some tips for things to cover in your film analysis:
- You will be able to discuss how the actors act and match the proposed role.
- Talk about the soundtrack and how it relates to the main plot in your essay writing.
- Camera movements and directing characteristics specific to that director in question.
- Image, light, and cinematography.
- You can still address other things that caught your attention while watching that movie.
