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Constructive criticism accepted? If you're trying to live up to your blog's name, then you're succeeding. Lines like "The cinematography was pretty decent. Nothing really ground-breaking, but it was a really pleasant movie to look at during some scenes." do very little to tell your readers anything. Who was the cinematographer? Did they do anything else of note? IMDB is your friend. In this case, Spanish cinematographer Oscar Faura; probably not many American readers are familiar with his work, as I believe it's his first English-language film. Same goes for the Norwegian director Morten Tyldum. What was interesting, or can you use more evocative language? Do you understand the visual language enough to recognize and describe things like tracking shots, handheld shots, framing, lighting? "I only have one minor complaint about this movie, which is the CGI." Cut off the "which is the CGI" part. I'm pretty sure no one calls it CGI anymore (just CG), and the phrase isn't necessary because you spend the rest of the paragraph talking about that very thing. Don't sound like Perd Hapley. Remember that it's not just about your impression of the movie, but why you felt that way. And, too, that you're writing about the film, not about how you felt about it. It's your opinion, sure, but there's a balance between putting yourself on the page and putting your recommendation or lack thereof on the page - the line between being Harry Knowles or Roger Ebert. Make the reader feel your joy...or pain...or indifference.

I used to be a semi-pro film critic and editor of other people's reviews. I learned a lot from reading the great critics - Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert - and from books about film. A Short Guide to Writing About Film, Film Art: An Introduction, How to Read a Film. All books I remember reading. And not just those, but books about writing. Particular favorites are The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing. If you want to brush up on your knowledge of what you're seeing, Every Frame a Painting is a stellar look at film's visual language.

spoilers

Has anyone seen the first Special Edition of this, where we see inside the mothership? I'm curious if it was any good -- I think it's out of print today. As I understand it, the studio pressured Spielberg to get the movie out before the end of '77 (incidentally, how crazy is it that this came out like six months after Star Wars? I think 1977 has got to be one of the best Hollywood years ever [Annie Hall, too!]), and so he was forced to cut parts that he didn't have time to finish. When it was released, it became (I think) the most successful movie ever at that time (surpassing Spielberg's previous movie, Jaws) -- so the studio was very happy to give him some more money to finish filming the parts that didn't make it. They didn't feel like a "director's cut" alone was enough to give the movie another theatrical run, so they insisted he have the camera follow the people into the mothership at the end. He agreed, and this was released to theaters in 1980 (1981?) as the 'Special Edition'. Spielberg was happy with everything but the inside of the mothership -- he felt that actually getting to look inside the ship was antithetical to the movie's philosophy: the wonder of the unknown. So anyway, I think he got the inside-the-mothership bit cut for the DVD release. All I really know is that the version I've seen is the one director's cut without the inside of the spaceship.

OOF. That was long. If you want more, in nicer prose, in the form of the diary of an actor who is in the movie, buy this wonderful book by Bob Balaban (who, coincidentally, is my neighbor).

If you love this movie, check out the Book or the Manga.
They are both really good.

I thought it was pretty good. Pretty cool war tactics. I saw the american version. If you have an amazon prime membership you can watch it there. check out r/primeinstantvideos too.

Book is outstanding too. Autobiography.

Right up there with Shantaram.

A Blu-Ray version of the theatrical double-feature just came out. It would have been nice if they'd worked some Blu-Ray magic and allowed you to select between the missing reel and extended versions, but that's not a deal-breaker for me.

I just got this DVD. Back in the day, I had this recorded from HBO and watched it all of the time.