Movie reviews a.k.a. Film criticism is the art of analyzing and
evaluating the films. Though majorly new movies releasing every week on
the big screen undergoes the process of film reviews and movie ratings
but the same is applied to older movies for academic purposes. Hence
film reviews and ratings are divided into two category: Journalistic
reviews and ratings which appear in newspapers and other mass media
platforms like online reviews of picture and Academic reviews and
ratings by film scholars for media students.
Film critics working for newspapers, magazines and online portals
mainly review recent releases. Reviews mainly consist of the plot
summary and description about the film and movie ratings is usually star
ratings i.e. how the critic rates the film, usually on a scale of 1 to 5
stars. Present day trend witnesses that it is usually the film reviews
and ratings that determine the success of a picture at the theaters. It
plays a major role on the audiences decision to whether or not to watch a
newly released film. A movie that is poorly reviewed and rated can doom
a film to obscurity and financial loss.
In recent times, the impact of film critic's movie reviews on a
movie's performance at the box office have turned into a matter of
debate. Nowadays, most films are promoted with new social media
techniques and modern movie marketing tactics, hence silencing the
legitimate criticism of a legitimate film critic. This in turn has led
to a decline in the readership of movie reviews and ratings. Most show
ratings and reviews these days are focused on the box office collection
of the movies making financial success the only criterion to determine
the success of the movies releasing every week. The other aspects
especially the art criticism of a movie review is buried somewhere under
the financial reports and is dying away, until genuine film critics and
the audiences fight for it.
Conversely, positive movie reviews and ratings have always ignited
the spark of interest for lesser known movie like Ship of Theseus
(2013); Paan Singh Tomar (2010); Vicky Donor (2012); The Hurt Locker
(2008) compared to popular commercial flicks. Some well know film
critics are Rajeev Masand, The Guardian, Raja Sen (Rediff.com) and many
more.
There are several website like IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic to
name a few that provides movie reviews and movie ratings through the
online medium to the movie lovers. These websites compile the reviews
and assign score to each movie. Some websites provide a comprehensive
perspective on the movies while some specialize in narrow aspects of
film reviewing.The websites also enable the movie viewer to submit
reviews and ratings for the movies watched by them. Many of these sites
allow the users to rate the movie on a scale of 0 to 10, while some have
adopted the star rating system of 0-5 stars. Yet another popular way of
reviewing and rating movies is through blogging which has opened a new
medium for the amateur film critics to have their opinions heard.
Till the date, movies are there to entertain us, reviews and movie
ratings will be there in some or the other form to analyze the movies
releasing every week.
