How to review and not to review a film...also book meme
Jul. 16th, 2025 07:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Dueling Superman Reviews - which unintentionally depict how to write a film review and how not to write a film review.
Professional film/music/book critic and science fiction novelist John Scalzi and his daughter, an inspiring blogger (who to date has primarily written blog posts in her father's blog) post dual reviews of the new film - Superman (directed by James Gunn).
Go HERE (Warning, Athena Scalzi's review is filled with spoilers, although I got confused halfway through, jumped to the end and gave up on her review, her father, John Scalzi's review has relatively few - actually no spoilers outside of what you might see in the trailers.)
The dueling reviews - which are quite different takes on the film - unintentionally show the dos and don'ts of writing reviews, and glaringly show the difference between a professional film critic's review and a amateur film reviewer who saw a flick.
Snippets for examples of the difference:
Beginning of AS's review: ( Read more... )
Beginning of JS's review: ( Read more... )
And..
Ending of AS's review: ( Read more... )
Ending of JS's review: ( Read more... )
The trick in reviewing anything - is to give the reader just enough information for them to determine privately if they want to see, read, or listen to the item being reviewed themselves. Is it worth their time? Their taste more likely than not will differ greatly from the reviewer's - so the trick is to give them enough information, without spoiling them, to know whether to check it out for themselves. And at the same time - entertaining them, giving them interesting information, and not boring or confusing them in the process. This is not easy to do. Most amateur reviewers haven't a clue how to do it, as you can see from AS's review.
I figured out from John Scalzi's whether it made sense to see the film in a big theater, and whether I'd like it. And that was without being insanely spoiled on it. Besides giving me a headache, Athena's review confused me and spoiled me about various bits, I'd prefer not to be spoiled on. Also, AS's review only works for those who have already seen the film and not as a review - whose audience is those who haven't seen the film yet. You can't make sense of AS's review without having seen the film. I also couldn't tell if I'd like the film or not. But I knew without a doubt whether I would reading her father's review. (I won't and will wait for it to come on television. It's like Gunn's other films - too busy. And movie theaters aren't comfortable any longer? And have too many distractions? I'd rather watch at home.)
( cut for length )
2. Books
I think I've landed on The Rook -
Per Good Reads: Myfanwy Thomas awakens in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, she must trust the instructions left by her former in order to survive. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization, and this person wants her dead. Battling to save herself, Myfanwy will encounter a person with four bodies, a woman who can enter her dreams, children transformed into deadly fighters, and terrifyingly vast conspiracy. Suspenseful and hilarious, The Rook is an outrageously imaginative thriller for readers who like their espionage with a dollop of purple slime.
"Utterly convincing and engrossing -- -totally thought-through and frequently hilarious....Even this aging, jaded, attention-deficit-disordered critic was blown away."-Lev Grossman, Time
About the author: Dan O'Malley graduated from Michigan State University and earned a Master's Degree in medieval history from Ohio State University. He then returned to his childhood home, Australia. He now works for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, writing press releases for government investigations of plane crashes and runaway boats.
This may work for me - it fits my sense of humor, and I'm also a jaded, attention-deficit-disordered critic at the moment.
Plus it's on Kindle so not hard to lug around.
Finished Remarkably Bright Creatures - my difficulty with it was all the characters were frustratingly dense. The writer contrived ways to keep them apart which irritated me. I deal with dense people daily, I can't handle reading about them? Also the writing style didn't work for me, for some reason?
Re-listening to all of the Kate Daniels Graphic Audio Dramatizations - there's ten in all. Plus several single audio books, which aren't. Maybe by the time I finish there will be more? The Kate Daniels series scratches whatever itch I need scratched at the moment. Also they are kind of comfort reads.
And still making my way through the thick paperback of Fair Folk.
Professional film/music/book critic and science fiction novelist John Scalzi and his daughter, an inspiring blogger (who to date has primarily written blog posts in her father's blog) post dual reviews of the new film - Superman (directed by James Gunn).
Go HERE (Warning, Athena Scalzi's review is filled with spoilers, although I got confused halfway through, jumped to the end and gave up on her review, her father, John Scalzi's review has relatively few - actually no spoilers outside of what you might see in the trailers.)
The dueling reviews - which are quite different takes on the film - unintentionally show the dos and don'ts of writing reviews, and glaringly show the difference between a professional film critic's review and a amateur film reviewer who saw a flick.
Snippets for examples of the difference:
Beginning of AS's review: ( Read more... )
Beginning of JS's review: ( Read more... )
And..
Ending of AS's review: ( Read more... )
Ending of JS's review: ( Read more... )
The trick in reviewing anything - is to give the reader just enough information for them to determine privately if they want to see, read, or listen to the item being reviewed themselves. Is it worth their time? Their taste more likely than not will differ greatly from the reviewer's - so the trick is to give them enough information, without spoiling them, to know whether to check it out for themselves. And at the same time - entertaining them, giving them interesting information, and not boring or confusing them in the process. This is not easy to do. Most amateur reviewers haven't a clue how to do it, as you can see from AS's review.
I figured out from John Scalzi's whether it made sense to see the film in a big theater, and whether I'd like it. And that was without being insanely spoiled on it. Besides giving me a headache, Athena's review confused me and spoiled me about various bits, I'd prefer not to be spoiled on. Also, AS's review only works for those who have already seen the film and not as a review - whose audience is those who haven't seen the film yet. You can't make sense of AS's review without having seen the film. I also couldn't tell if I'd like the film or not. But I knew without a doubt whether I would reading her father's review. (I won't and will wait for it to come on television. It's like Gunn's other films - too busy. And movie theaters aren't comfortable any longer? And have too many distractions? I'd rather watch at home.)
( cut for length )
2. Books
I think I've landed on The Rook -
Per Good Reads: Myfanwy Thomas awakens in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, she must trust the instructions left by her former in order to survive. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization, and this person wants her dead. Battling to save herself, Myfanwy will encounter a person with four bodies, a woman who can enter her dreams, children transformed into deadly fighters, and terrifyingly vast conspiracy. Suspenseful and hilarious, The Rook is an outrageously imaginative thriller for readers who like their espionage with a dollop of purple slime.
"Utterly convincing and engrossing -- -totally thought-through and frequently hilarious....Even this aging, jaded, attention-deficit-disordered critic was blown away."-Lev Grossman, Time
About the author: Dan O'Malley graduated from Michigan State University and earned a Master's Degree in medieval history from Ohio State University. He then returned to his childhood home, Australia. He now works for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, writing press releases for government investigations of plane crashes and runaway boats.
This may work for me - it fits my sense of humor, and I'm also a jaded, attention-deficit-disordered critic at the moment.
Plus it's on Kindle so not hard to lug around.
Finished Remarkably Bright Creatures - my difficulty with it was all the characters were frustratingly dense. The writer contrived ways to keep them apart which irritated me. I deal with dense people daily, I can't handle reading about them? Also the writing style didn't work for me, for some reason?
Re-listening to all of the Kate Daniels Graphic Audio Dramatizations - there's ten in all. Plus several single audio books, which aren't. Maybe by the time I finish there will be more? The Kate Daniels series scratches whatever itch I need scratched at the moment. Also they are kind of comfort reads.
And still making my way through the thick paperback of Fair Folk.
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