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Carlos Alberto Pea

Zack de Piero
Writing 2
12 March 2015
What Makes a Movie Review a Movie Review?
Most movies will have some kind of review before it comes out in the
theatres and each review is unique. Sometimes movie critics bump heads
and have very different views and opinions on a movie. For example, the
Superman movie Man of Steel, had critics raving on both ends. Best
Superman movie yet Great character development and then there is,
Worst cinematic portrayal of the Superman I grew up with. (Morris, Jesus
Christ Superman) Yet, movie reviews have their conventions and rules that
they follow. Most reviews will give a counterargument of their opinion and
then continue to back their view of the movie. In each of the Man of Steels
reviews, the audience will see how each one tries to avoid spoiling the movie
and how each take their own viewpoint of the movie. I believe that most
movie reviews consist of ratings, persuasive or unconvincing language, and
conventions that make it what it is. The specific review sites in this case will
be depicted from RottenTomatoes and imdb, the websites consist of
Grantland, RogerEbert, Forbes, and Rolling Stone.
Genre is important for people to study and comprehend as it helps to
distinguish different materials. People must be able to tell the difference from
a job application and a menu and from a traffic ticket and a lottery ticket. We

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are able to distinguish some genres by their characteristics and their

conventions. For example, in Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk, we see how
people distinguish country music by stating, Country songs tend to tell
stories. They often have characters who are developed throughout the
song. (Dirk 249) Like Janet Boyd tells us in Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking),
who would read a crime scene report? (Boyd 90) People reading a catalog
would not expect to find a crime scene report, but would expect a crime
scene report if they were reading a news article. I believe Boyd intends to
show us that each genre is directed to a specific audience, and the writers of
that genre try various methods to engage the target audience.
For movie reviews the specific and intended audience are the
moviegoers themselves which can be any regular person or a film enthusiast.
The characteristics that make a movie review a movie review are movie
titles, ratings, specific language, and positive/negative feedback.

The

presentation of this genre will show you that it is a movie review; you will see
many current movie titles and ratings that are from professional movie critics
and ratings from regular moviegoers that have seen them. Usually, the page
will have the ratings first and then positive or negative feedback of the film
after the title. The title of the movie review and specific language help the
audience predict and understand the tone the author is conveying in their
view of the movie. Movie critics will give a moderate counterargument of
their view to give the movie credit. Yet, they will stand firmly on their
viewpoint in order to not confuse the reader. Though movie reviews are only

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opinions of the critic, they each follow specific conventions that make the
movie review what it is.
The first thing you will come across in a movie review is the title the
critic has given it. From many sources that offer movie reviews, few stood
out to me because they are exactly what I thought a movie review will
consist of. For example, Jesus Christ Superman- Man of Steel Flies for our
Sins (Wesley Morris, Grantland) gives the impression that the authors
opinion is obviously going to try to sink the movie because they did not enjoy
it cinematically. On the other hand, the title Man of Steel: A Solid but Mixed
Revival of Superman Franchise (Mark Hughes, Forbes) shows a positive
appeal for the movie and it also hints at a positive tone for the review. Other
review titles are just plain and simple; usually they will just be titled by the
name of the movie, Man of Steel, (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) and you
cannot assume what point of view the critic is going to take. In some sources
like Grantland and Forbes, the titles of the movie reviews are meant to
appeal a younger group of moviegoers that want to hear an honest review of
a film. In contrast, the titles in sources like Rolling Stone are intended for a
more professional audience. The titles of movie reviews usually set up the
tone for the audience before they actually start reading the review.
Along with the titles, critics use specific language to convey their
opinion of a film so that the audience could have a sense of how they feel
about the film. In some cases there will be a brief summary of the film
followed by a short review. Some authors use harsh vocabulary and brutal

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imagery to paint a picture for their audience. For example, Morris compares
Superman to Jesus Christ, The movie is so serious about comparing Clark to
the Messiah that it starts to feel like church. (Morris, Grantland) Other
authors are more light hearted and persuade the reader to go watch the film
for its good cinematic components. It's sincere but not particularly funny or
sweet. The hero is a glum hunk (Matt Zoller Seitz, Roger Ebert) The type
of language used cannot really differ from source to source because the
reviews are composed of the authors own opinions.
Though each writer has their own opinions of the movie, they each
have a similar style of portraying their point of view. One thing that each of
the critics included in their movie review was a comparison to similar movies.
Each author included a section or part in their review in which they
compared Man of Steel to its predecessors. Some were fonder of the most
recent adaptation while others just pulled it apart. Weve had so many
tellings of the Superman story the comic books, a ton of television shows,
two very good movies, a couple of bad sequels and this near miss.
(Morris, Grantland) Despite their contrasting views of the movie, the opinion
seemed to be agreeable between all the authors.
This genre is particularly distinguishable by its format within the
websites where you can find movie reviews. The most famous websites are
sites such as Rolling Stone, Rotten Tomatoes, IMdB, and Forbes. Each of
these websites are unique, but each have the same formatting style for a
movie review. The first piece that distinguishes a movie review is the movie

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poster or picture from the movie so that their audience can distinguish films
that have similar titles. Then it is the title of the film followed by the rating of
the movie with either a scale of five stars, scale from one to ten, or the
percentage of likes and dislikes. These components make the genre
recognizable and different from other genres.

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Works Cited:
Zoller Seitz, Matt. "Man of Steel." Roger Ebert. Ebert Digital, 14 June
2013. Web. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/man-of-steel-2013>.
Morris, Wesley. "Jesus Christ Superman: Man of Steel Flies for Our Sins."
Grantland.

ESPN

Internet

Ventures,

13

June

2013.

Web.

<http://grantland.com/features/man-steel-flies-our-sins/>.
Various. "Man of Steel." Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster, June 2013. Web.
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/superman_man_of_steel/>.
Various.

"Man

of

Steel."

IMDb.

IMDb.com,

June

2013.

Web.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/reviews?ref_=tt_urv>.
Hughes, Mark. "'Man Of Steel' A Solid But Mixed Revival Of Superman
Franchise."

Forbes.

Forbes

Magazine,

11

June

2013.

Web.

<http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2013/06/11/man-of-steel-is-asolid-revival-of-superman-franchise/>.
Travers, Peter. "Man of Steel." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 13 June
2013.

Web.

20130613>.

<http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/man-of-steel-