New Rating: Entertainment Value and More

My reviews have gone through a couple of changes as late, and I plan to add one other category for me to critique, "Entertainment Value." At some point next month, I will likely devote a post entirely to explaining my review system so that newcomers will understand my rating system better, but before I explain Entertainment Value, I have noticed one big problem with my reviews: they are so freaking long! 

Admittedly, I am a wordy person that enjoys analyzing basically everything which results in reviews that are upwards of 1500 words on occasion, but average out around 1200. With my categorized system of analyzing various aspects individually, I have been trying to write my reviews in such a way that if you want to know the gist of what I am saying, read the opening, Good/Bad, Overall, and Closing Comments, and any other category that you are specifically interested in. On the other hand, my reviews look rather imposing to read due to the length. The addition of pictures and gifs seem to have improved the look and feel of the reviews, which many of you have noted (thanks for the feedback!). So, right now I am thinking of ways to say everything in fewer words. Obviously, important movies definitely require a full explanation of why they are good or bad, but my more general reviews probably need to be cutdown. If you have any feedback on how that could be accomplished, please let me know. Maybe I should be more generalized in my critique of acting and only note particularly strong or weak performances. 

Moving on to my explanation of the new rating category: Entertainment Value. As the name implies, Entertainment Value gives a rating to my personal amount of entertainment experienced while watching the film. More so than any other category, Entertainment Value is the most subjective and is based on personal enjoyment. I am entertained in a variety of ways. Some movies are fun and entertaining thanks to the humor and characters like Back to the Future, which would receive a 10/10 for Entertainment Value, and some are fun action movies like Die Hard that receive similarly high ratings. On the other hand, suspense mysteries that challenge me to figure out what is happen also entertains. Examples of that would be Rear Window and the Usual Suspects. Darker movies like The Godfather even offer a good amount of Entertainment Value. Also, Entertainment Value heavily influences rewatchability and how a movie ranks on my Top 100 list. For me, historical epics like Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, and Seven Samurai are very entertaining, even if many modern viewers would cite them as "slow" and "boring." Even though not all movies are intended to be entertaining, like Schindler's List, those types of films are not the ones that I rank among my favorites, but are, nonetheless, "great," well crafted films.

All in all, Entertainment Value has a lot to do with personal enjoyment and that is how the rating is decided. Also, if you have not figured it out already, my scores for each category are not added up for a final score. Many movies have non-quantifiable qualities that are evident in the Overall rating.  Also, this new rating is going to be applied to all of my types of reviews like TV and anime. Hopefully, that all makes sense, and if you have any questions or feedback, please let me know. Even answering seemingly simple questions can help everyone better understand my ratings, myself included. Also, please check back tomorrow for my review of Gravity.

If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.