Ok, first off, if you came here for an objective review of ANYTHING you're fooling yourself. No such thing when it comes to movies and games (heretofore known as media). For one thing, the person reviewing may value one aspect of the media more or less than you. Their mood that day and inclination toward the media in the first place can have a heavy influence. Hell, factors that have nothing to do with the media whatsoever can sway opinions one way or the other. So before you get your panties in a bunch because I say something you love is complete garbage or vice-versa, remember that this is my OPINION. And you're an idiot.
In order to mitigate this being my opinion, I break up my movie reviews into 4 scores followed by a cumulative average score. I do this so you can focus on what you value most in a movie. Here are the explanation of each with examples of the good and bad:
Technical - This is a sum of Directing, Editing, Art Direction, Cinematography, Special Effects, Music, Sound, etc. Basically all the Academy Awards no one gives a tinkus cuss about. I kid, but it's kinda true. I hate to lump all these together, but then again, it makes sense. Either all of these things work together and make the movie better or they fall apart and make it worse. The only instance that this area really doesn't matter much to me is Comedies. If it's funny it's usually because of the next two areas, not this one. Example of good technical making an ok (or in this case "bad") movie better: "A Clockwork Orange". Think about it, it's depravity at its finest and arguably Malcolm McDowell makes it better on his own, but a movie like that teeters on the edge the whole time which takes a deft hand to manage. The opposite is true of something like "Darkness Falls" or most modern horror. The story and acting isn't horrible, but everything else is just so awfully done it drags the whole movie down.
Dialogue/Story - This one is fairly explanatory. Both the overarching story and the actual dialogue between the actors is what is scored here. To me, this is the most important part of a movie. So popcorn crap like "Transformers" loses alot of ground in this area. Predictable stories and dialogue are the biggest anchors when you look at this score. On the other hand, any movie by Tarantino is fantastic because of how he writes. Perfect example: "Jackie Brown" is not his best from a technical aspect, but it is elevated to one of my favs because of the dialogue (especially Ordell's) and story.
Acting - Again, very self explanatory. I have to believe them in the role and not feel like they're overacting or that I'm always aware that they're "acting". A little hard to explain, but take almost every performance by Katherine Hepburn. You can almost see her reciting the other person's lines in her head and counting how long the pause should be before she speaks. Or when they desperately try to make Tom Cruise an "action hero"...I just don't buy it. Back on the other side is "Doubt", a movie that is not particularly well put together or written that well, but the performances of Meryl, Amy, Viola, and Philip (who I normally don't like) brought it up to a high caliber level.
Tilt - This last category is where the intangibles lie. This is where any sense of objectivity that was there in the previous categories goes out the window. Sometimes a movie can be hitting on all the other cylinders, but it will just leave me flat (like "Monster") or a movie can be not particularly good in any of the other areas, but I love it (like "Empire Records"). I really don't have a distinct set of criteria here, just how I really felt about the movie.
So that's about it...and as far as games, it's a little harder to do a review with a score to me. I think that will be more of a pros and cons discussion followed by a recommend or not. This one is even more subjective than movies, especially because I only like certain types of games, but can appreciate almost any movie.
So long for now. I'll probably have an actual review up either tomorrow or Monday. I need to watch "The Hunger Games"...don't know how I feel about that.
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