How Can You Tell If A Movie Is Any Good?
If you’re like me, and I know I am, you like going to see movies. You see good movies, and you see bad movies. Sometimes it’s obvious why a good movie is good or a bad movie is bad, but sometimes it’s hard to tell. People like to defend their feelings, so if you felt good coming out of a movie and you’re asked why it was good, you’ll find a reason. People often like certain genres, but that doesn’t mean they like every movie from that genre, or hate every movie that isn’t. Every once in a while, you go to see X kind of movie you don’t normally like, and you walk out of the theater smiling. Why is that?
There are a few important questions you should ask yourself about every movie you see. These will tell you what the building blocks of the movie really are. Those building blocks are what make a good or bad movie. This is how screenwriters and story editors determine if a story is any good. Just like how you don’t need to know how to cook to enjoy a souffle, you don’t need to know this stuff to enjoy a movie, but these qualities are what separate good food from empty calories.
Who is the hero?
If you can’t answer this question, the whole script is crap. This should be really obvious after watching the movie. Even in ensemble movies you should be able to do this. In ensemble movies this should be really easy, because each hero’s story is smaller and thus easier to encapsulate.
A bad example is Now You See Me, in which the only character who changes (essential for all heroes except James Bond) is the FBI agent who you don’t see much of until the end. None of the other main characters match all of the characteristics of the hero.
What does the hero want?
If you can’t answer this, the hero isn’t well written. Every hero must want something. “I want to be a Jedi, like my father before me.” That kind of stuff. If a hero doesn’t want something, there’s nothing to risk everything for.
Ask yourself, what does Steve Rogers want in Captain America? Easy, right? Okay, what does Rey want in The Force Awakens? Now you’re confused. Don’t worry, so was everyone else.
What is the hero afraid of?
This is easy. The hero has to have the worst thing that could happen, happen, in the end of act 2.
When Obi-Wan Kenobi is killed, Luke is left without clear guidance and has to trust his own decision making skills, and ultimately, The Force. If Obi-Wan had been on the radio with Luke during the Death Star attack, things would not have been so dramatic. In horror movies, the flashlight batteries die. In an action movie, the gun runs out of bullets, leaving the hero and the people he cares about at the mercy of the villain. You get the idea.
Who is the antagonist and why is this the only antagonist the hero could have had?
The villain isn’t just some guy who has a competing want. His want has to be informed by and informing of the hero’s want. The villain is a shadow of the hero, so the villain’s wants are similar to the hero’s wants, and the villain goes about things without the fears of the hero, fears which may include breaking a moral code. The hero should even be tempted to be a bit like the villain, worried about their potential to go to The Dark Side.
If you can’t answer these movies after watching a movie, then the movie is probably flawed. It doesn’t mean it’s not good, but it may, and it probably does. This shouldn’t mean you can’t enjoy a bad movie though. Just know that we’re all judging you. Yes. We’re judging you, Devon.
