My System for reviewing movies

I never have really been able to tell when someone’s acting is good or bad, I usually have gone off of what other people have said. The same thing can be said for cinematography and a couple of other aspects of film. So when I was thinking of creating a system of reviewing movies, I wanted to base my reviews in my opinion, so I can’t rely on what other people are saying too much. So I created my own rubric of grading movies, based off of things I can tell for myself.

My first category is Enjoyability. Some movie genres I will enjoy more or less than others, but a film in a genre I don’t like can still be enjoyable, just less so. A perfect Enjoyability score would for me be summed up as, “When I was watching the movie, I was never wishing I could be watching/doing something else, I was completely entranced and enthralled.”

The second category is Music/Sound. After watching a film I intensely enjoyed, I frequently look up the soundtrack to reexperience my favorite songs. A perfect score accompanies and enhances the emotions of the movie.

Third, is Concept and Delivery. Every movie starts off with a concept, but even the best concepts if done poorly make for a bad movie, as well as the bad concept done very well making for a good movie. A perfect score is a novel and interesting concept that is executed perfectly.

Visual Effects(VFX)/Costumes for live-action, Animation for animated. A movie could have a compelling premise and good music, but if it doesn’t look good, it gets harder to get through the movie. How it looks is not everything, some movies that are 40+ years old are still considered very good. A perfect score for this would be making the concept more believable, and the VFX/Animation let the director fully tell the story they wanted to, taking into account the technology that was available to them at the time it was being made.

Last, Rewatchability. Sometimes the initial experience is incredible, but upon a second watch-through, there’s less to it than you thought. Other movies only increase in how much I enjoy them with repeat watchings. A perfect movie gets better as you notice more details and get a better appreciation for the movie each time you watch it. Each category will be rated from 1 to 5.

My first review will be for The Lion King.