Opinion: What makes a movie good or bad

One of the most relaxing things to do on a weekend night with your family is to sit at your couch, bundled up with blankets, and enjoy a movie. After the film, you and your family members are arguing if this is a good movie or not. What makes a movie good is having good settings and good acting, and what makes a movie bad is if it is predictable.

A movie is good when it has good settings that are both captivating and accurate. A good example is the movie Jumanji, Welcome to the Jungle. The setting of this movie was essentially a generic jungle. They filmed this movie in the jungles of Hawaii. When I watched the movie, I was shocked by how realistic the setting was. There were palm trees, ferns, and other plants in view.

I felt as if I was actually in the jungle with them. What’s even more amazing is that the place called “Jumanji” in the story is actually a fictional place, but the setting of the jungles of Hawaii and the overall movie magic made it come alive and feel like a real place. This movie was actually an overall bland movie in terms of depth of story and character, but that was boosted by a vivid and precise environment which made it a good movie in the end. A captivating and accurate setting is very important to the movie-watching experience.

Another component of making a movie good is if the acting is good. Good acting allows the audience to identify emotions in the characters. An example of a movie with bad acting is “Artemis Fowl”, an adaption of the novel with the same name. Ferdia Shaw, who played Artemis Fowl, the main character, had the most monotonous voice ever. It seemed as if he did not put any effort into the movie.

Even when he was trying to be happy or serious, it just made me want to go to sleep. On Rotten Tomatoes, the rating for the movie is 8%. Bad acting makes the audience feel like they aren’t emotionally connected to a character, which can ruin the movie.

A movie is bad when it is predictable. Most boxing movies fall into this category. For example, “Rocky”, the boxing movie is rather predictable. Most of the boxing movies’ plots are always something along the line of this: there is the climactic final fight, they get beaten up and are on the brink of losing, but they then pull out the power of friendship and loyalty, and the main character proceeds to beat the living daylights out of their opponent.

A predictable movie makes the audience feel like they didn’t get the emotional ending they deserved to make the story more interesting. When a movie is predictable, it seems like there’s no point in watching it.

There are several reasons a movie turns out bad or good, and making a movie is definitely not easy.  However, I find that if a movie has a good setting, good acting, and an unpredictable plot, it can’t go too wrong.