Spoiler Alert's Mission Statement

The first rule of review writing is not to give away too much, so the ending isn't ruined for the hapless reader. But where's the fun in that?

This blog's aim is to summarize and review movies from beginning to end, plot twists and all. If you've already seen the film in question, or if you just don't care if the ending is ruined, maybe you'll dredge some entertainment out of a review. Maybe you'll find something you agree with, or maybe you'll have a new understanding of the film. Maybe not. 

Either way, if you don't want movies... well, spoiled for you before you see them, then read no further. Otherwise, please, read on, and enjoy.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

So I've Been Thinking...

...And I finally figured out what this blog is supposed to be. I started it for the simple reason of explaining the movie "Hancock" without the restraints imposed by the major plot twist midway through. From there, I realized that restriction is placed on nearly every review you're likely to read - because reviewers aren't supposed to give away the ending, at the very least, if they can help it.

I did away with whatever conventions I felt restricted my unabridged analysis of a current film. But here I was presented with another problem - namely, that there was almost no room for ANALYSIS because I spent so much time with SYNOPSIS.

This is pointless, irritating and counter-productive for a number of reasons. Firstly, devoting much time to narrative is tedious for me, especially for lengthy or complicated films like "The Dark Knight." Secondly, I've been told this is the part of the review readers are least likely to, well, READ, because if they've already seen the movie, it's just not that interesting. In short, synopsizing is equally uninteresting to both me and you, the loyal reader. I may stick in a few gems of insight during the plot run-down, but the appraisal at the end is where it's at. So why not make that the whole review?

I need to start thinking about these reviews differently again - I've been aiming for a mark I couldn't quite see, but I think I'm getting closer. What I'll be going for in the future won't be so much review writing as essay writing or free-form discussion - I will be free to take aspects of the films I choose and examine them. This will free me in a few new ways, and it will hopefully make the reviews (if that's what you still want to call them) more enjoyable and helpful to you. And, if my current brain children see birth, you're going to see a lot more essays with more than one movie involved.

So thanks for reading. I'll leave you with this:

Click Me

4 comments:

Molly said...

Ooooh. Exciting. I wish I had talent to analyze movies and pop culture. Every movie I see goes something like this:

"I liked it."
"Why?"
"I don't know."

So you are lightyears ahead of me. That's why doing those restaraunt, Joker comics and music reviews have been so difficult for me these past two weeks.

Keep fighting the good fight!!

Molly said...

P.s. Loooove the new photo. Now I can read your blog at night or when I'm alone and not want to cry.

abigail said...

boom. let's compare the dark knight to a knights tale.

Molly said...

Abby, I was truly hoping you wouldn't remember that Heath Ledger was in A Knight's Tale. Queen was put to shame in that movie.

Anywho, Bob, now that the summer's over you won't have an comic book movies to review for awhile. I actually forgot that this was an all-encompassing movie erviews blog because of all the kck ass super hero shit you've been writin about.

What are you gonna do with yourself?