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College life is laden with so many academic responsibilities that the student has to complete. Most of them impart not only knowledge but also skills that are essential even in life after college. Assignment writing is not as revered by the student as it’s supposed to be. However, that does not mean they want do it. Among the academic tasks, these students have to deal with is writing a college movie review. A movie can be too boring or a brilliant work of art, and if people are watching, then it can be critiqued. If you want to write an excellent movie review essay for college, ensure it I entertaining, persuasive and informative. More so, it should provide an original opinion without giving spoilers about the plot.

A great college movie review can be a work of art on its own. As such, you need to know how you can come up with the best college movie review essay of all time. The question you need task here is, how do you come up, with a perfect college movie review?

Drafting your college movie review essay

This is how you start the process of coming up with the best movie review essay for college.

Start with a compelling opinion or fact about the movie

The idea here is to get the audience hooked to your piece immediately they start reading it. The first sentence of your college movie review needs to give them a feel of your paper and the movie in general. In other words, you are telling them if the movie is good, great, terrible, or just okay. Some of the ideas you can use include the following:

  • Comparison to a relevant event or movie
  • Giving a review in a nutshell
  • Context or background information

Provide a clear well established opinion early enough

The worst mistake here is to leave the audience wondering if you like the movie or not. You need to let them know early enough so that you can use the remaining time proving whatever that you stated. You can use stars, a score out of 10 or a simple thumbs up and thumbs-down as a quick way to show your thoughts. Then explain why you gave such a rating. You can also say it is a great movie, bad movie or okay movie.

(Also read: Getting acquainted with top tips of writing a custom book review)

Write your review

This is when you see the importance of taking notes during the movie. The audience will not care about your opinion in the college movie review if you do not give facts and support them with relevant evidence.

Let the review transcend the obvious plot analysis

The movie is made up of many things, and the plot is one of them. As such, your college movie review should not dwell on the plot alone. Some of the movies lack a great or compelling plot, but that does not imply that the movie is bad. Some of the things you need to include in your movie review essay for college are cinematography, music and sound, tone, acting.

Let your review come full circle in the ending

If you want to write the best college movie review essay, you need to give it some closure by going back to your opening fact. Remember that the audience reads the review to decide if the movie is worth watching or not. You can end with a sentence that tells them if the movie is great, bad, or okay.

Studying your source material

To do this, you need to:

Gather basic facts about the movie

This can happen before or after you have watched the movie, but you need to do it before writing your college movie review. You need to weave facts into your review as you write and this is what you need to know:

  • Title of the film and the year of release
  • Director’s name
  • The name of the lead actors
  • Genre

Take notes on the movie as you watch it

Before you can embark on watching the film, ensure you have a notepad or a laptop for you to take notes. Movies are long, and it is easy to forget some details or major plot points. If you take notes, you will identify little things that you can revisit later. Take note every time something sticks out to you, whether good or bad. It could be about costumes, makeup, music, set design, etc. think of how this detail relates to the rest of your movie and what it means in the context of your college movie review.

More so, take note of the patterns you notice as the movie unfolds. You can pause the movie as frequent as you can to ensure you do not miss anything and rewind as much as you can.

Analyze all the mechanics of the movie

In your college movie review, you need to analyze various components that came together in the move as you watch. During or after viewing it, ask yourself about the impression that the movie made on you in these areas:

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Consider how the director chose to portray or explain the events in the story. If the movie was slow or omitted things you thought were crucial, attribute this to the director. If you have watched other movies directed by the same person, compare them and determine the one you like the most.

Cinematography

In your college movie review, consider the cinematography. In other words, you have to talk about the techniques used to film the movie, the setting, and background elements that helped in creating a certain tone.

Writing

Evaluate the script, including the characterization and dialogue. Let the reader know if you felt the plot was inventive and unpredictable or weak and boring. Tell them in the words of the characters seemed credible to you or not.

Editing

In your college movie review essay, let the reader know if the movie was choppy or it had a smooth flow from one scene to the next. Was there a montage to assist in building the story and was it obstructive to the narrative or did it add any help? Tell if there were long cuts to accentuate the actor’s ability to act or many reaction shots to sow a group reaction to an event or dialogue.

If there are visual effects, were they well chosen and were the composite effects p[art of the seamless experience?

Costume design

Talk about how the clothing choice fit the style of the movie or not. Let the reader know if it contributed to the overall time instead of digressing it.

Set design

In your movie review essay for college, consider how the setting of the film affected its other elements. Did it add or subtract from the experience for you? If the filming was done in a real place, was the location choice the best?

Soundtrack

Let the reader know if the soundtrack worked with the scenes, and if it was over or underused. Did it create suspense? Was it irritating or amusing? Soundtracks can make or break a movie especially if the song has a specific message or meaning to it.

Watch the movie one more time

You cannot understand the movie that you have only watched once, especially if you are pausing too much to take notes. You need to watch it at least once or twice before you can write your college movie review. Be attentive to details that you might have overlooked during the first watch. You can pick new points of focus this time, and if you took many notes on the acting the first time you watched the film, you could dwell on cinematography this time around.

Composing your review

When you are composing your college movie review essay, this is what you need to do:

Formulate an original thesis that anchors on your analysis

After having studied the movie thoroughly, you have to identify the unique insights that you need the reader to know. Formulate a thesis or a central idea to discuss and back up using observations on various elements of the film. Your thesis ought to be discussed in the first paragraph of your review. When you formulate a thesis statement, you transcend the plot summary stage and into the realm of film criticism, which is an art form of its own.

You need to consider the following aspects;

  • Is the film reflecting the current event or contemporary matter? This could be the director’s way of engaging in a bigger question. You have to look for ways that you can relate the film with the real world.
  • Does the film convey a message or does it elicit a specific response from the audience? you can discuss whether or not it achieves its targets
  • Do you have a personal connection with the film after watching it? Your college movie review can anchor on your feelings and have in some personal stories to make it more fascinating to the readers.

Stick to your thesis paragraph with a short plot summary

You can give your reader a gist of what they are going to get if they decide to watch the movie that you are reviewing. Provide a brief plot summary where you identify the major characters as you describe the setting, a sense of central conflict or point of the movie. The rule of thumb for any movies or even college movie review essay is not to give too much away because that will ruin the movie for your audience.

When naming the characters in your college movie review, list their names directly afterward in parenthesis. More so, find where you can mention the name of the director and if you are likely to discuss spoilers, warn the audience first.

Delve into the analysis of the movie

You can write several paragraphs of your college movie review discussing elements of the movie that support your thesis. Talk about the acting, direction, cinematography, the setting and so on. Ensure that you use clear, entertaining prose that keeps your readers engaged. Your writing ought to be easy to understand. It is recommended you refrain from using too much film jargon. Give your facts and opinion on the movie.

Use examples to back up your points

If you make a statement in your college movie review about the movie, ensure it is followed by a descriptive example. Describe the way the scene looks, how a character acted, camera angles and so on. Feel free to quote dialogue to help you to make your points well. As such, you are providing the reader with a feel of the movie as you continue to express your critique on it at the same time.

Give your college movie review some personality

Treat your college movie review like any other formal college essay, but ensure it remains fascinating. You should maintain your writing style, in that if you a witty or funny, it ought to come out in your movie review essay for college. This should be a way that you use to depict a unique perspective and personality because it is more entertaining to the audience.

Formulate an excellent conclusion

The conclusion of your college movie review ought to tie back to your thesis and provide some guidance as to where the audience can watch the movie or not. Make it as compelling or entertaining as you can because it is the end of your college movie review.

After you are done with the writing process:

Edit your review

Read the draft of your college movie review essay and check its flow and structure. Shift paragraphs, delete sentences, add more material and so on.

Proofread your work

The idea here is to ensure the paper is free from grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, typos, and other punctuation problems. In other words, you are looking at the outlook of your college movie review. You can have someone go through it because he can help you identify mistakes you might have overlooked. Once satisfied that the paper is intact, you can write the final copy and submit it where necessary.

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