To Be Reviewer or Not To Be

Some of you might aware that I occasionally review a movie, or animation, or comic book and fortunately (?) never get any hate from it. I never get this question before but  something occur recently that make me want to give my two cents on what it takes to be a good reviewer and can you become one ?


First of all, what is a reviewer ? An easy explanation, A reviewer is someone who comments on a certain things in term of its technicality and judges whether they are good, bad or just fine. In US, movie critics are the most popular with thousands and thousands of their Youtube channel can be found nowadays. Schmoes Know is one of the popular one but you can find more from there.
 

However, reviewer did just stop at movie, they are all over the place, from music, to books, to even cooking (Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan can be considered as food reviewing show).

So, what do they do ? Essentially they give comments on whether a movie (I'll go with movie as it is easier to give example and I am doing it as well)  is good or bad and help if they could the audience to decide whether they should watch it or not. However, do remember it is all opinion-based and you can agree to disagree at times but if they say a movie is worth to watch you can definitely trust them.

Now, the bigger question can you become a reviewer ? To be honest anyone can, in fact some of this people just started off as a fan and the more they do review, the more they learn about the terminology and jargon used in doing a review. I, for example, started reviewing my first movie, Salt (yes, that Angelina Jolie's flick) without no knowledge in review, heck in movie whatsoever but as I watch more review and learn more in college, it become more technical and I understand more what is defines as qualities (The Martian) and what is defines as rubbish (Cicakman 3).

While everyone can be a reviewer, there is something that divide between a good reviewer, a normal reviewer, and a bad reviewer. A good reviewer has technical knowledge in what they are reviewing. Whether it is screenwriting or filmmaking, or simply deep love in movie. Sanspants Radio's Movie Maintenance (good podcast) has two screenwriters as their staple guest. Weekly Planet's Mr. Sunday and Nick Mason are huge fans. Grace Randolph of Beyond The Trailer is a screenwriter graduates and possess deep knowledge in  movie business. These people really know what they are talking .

Again, coming back to me, I have little knowledge in filmmaking and when in comes to comic, I based my knowledge from creative writing, my own experience in reading comics. However, the most important thing in a good reviewer, they always have the good and the bad. There is no such thing as total garbage (even the infamous The Room) and there is no such thing as total perfection (maybe Citizen Kent), and these people recognize this and give credit to that. One quotes from Red Letter Media actually defines why these people are good reviewer, these people knows well how hard is it to create something and that's why whenever there is a good in a garbage movie, they credit it.

A normal reviewer on the other hand is like a good reviewer where they recognize the good and the bad but they have little to no knowledge about the technical aspect of what they reviewing. You can find this on newspaper review (maybe they don't want to burn bridges, but you can instantly know they no little about filmmaking), reviewer who essentially just a big fan and never go further to the technical aspect of the thing (shots, artistic style, etc.). You could say at times I fall into this category when it comes to anime because I am just a fan and have very little knowledge about it.

So, what is a bad reviewer ? First, they have little or no knowledge on whatsoever they are reviewing on. Secondly, they mostly either recognize just the good or the bad. While they are not the one you should listen too, they are the one you can find easily. In an opposite to a good reviewer, these people are not aware of the difficulties of creating something and that's why they sometimes just saying bad things to a good movie (great movie sometimes is boring) and don't see what is so great about it and just punish garbage movie without seeing the diamond in it.

So now, if you want to be a reviewer, you have to be a good one. Here is some my tips to be that.
First of all, watch other people reviews, study how they review a movie, what aspect they touch on, what terms or words they use and be sure to include that in yours.
Secondly, write a review in a language you can deliver the best information with. I write review in English because my knowledge came from these US reviewer, and if you feel you can communicate much better in Malay so write in Malay.
Next, If you are reviewing movie, or books try to avoid spoiler or warn you readers about it. It is a good way to gain audience especially if you aim to write review in the first week of the release.
Be sure to address the good or the bad of what you are reviewing. If it is mostly good, present the bad as a constructive criticism or a agree to disagree style remarks. If it mostly bad, credit if there is any good in it or apologize if there is none.
Lastly, once you got serious in reviewing, avoid watching other review before you doing yours. This is to avoid you being swayed by them and allow you to present you most honest opinion on the thing.

Now that you know a little bit of tricks of being of reviewer, are you interested to become one ? And those these tips helpful to you. Also, to all reviewer out there, what do you think of my take on reviewer ? Sound off your thought in the comment section below. Be sure to follow Comikrew Studio here and like it on Facebook. Subscribe to my comic on Tapastic and be sure to follow and hit me up on Twitter.