Plot Summaries in Movie Reviews?

Scott Hardie | October 23, 2007
This is a question about both TMR on this site and movie reviews in general. Do you like a plot summary to be included in the review?

Personally, I've always found them to be a nuisance and I skip over them in reviews, for a bunch of reasons. One, I don't like spoilers, and some critics (Ebert, bless his heart) give away the entire story through the ending. Two, I usually already have a faint impression of what the movie is about before I bother looking up reviews to decide whether to see it, so it's redundant. Three, most of the reviews that I read are after I see the movie, because I want to know what other people thought, and I certainly don't need the plot summarized then. Four, some critics spend so much time summarizing the plot that there's scarcely a paragraph left for actual commentary; I've seen some critics (poor Ebert again) spend literally the entire review summarizing the plot with not one comment about whether the movie is good. What's the point?

But I miss writing TMR, and I've been re-reading some of my old reviews in preparation for writing a lot more in the near future. Even though I still somewhat recall what each movie is about, I find my old reviews difficult to follow, because I jump right into praise or criticism with no introduction. It just plain feels like it's missing something.

Even though TMR is the semi-forgotten section of this site and probably most of you don't care, I ask the ones who do: Would you like a new field added to each review, offering a brief introduction to the film's story/premise/cast? I can forcibly keep them short in length, and I would ask the other reviewers to join me in keeping them spoiler-light. I'd make the decision myself, but I ask here because I'm curious whether I'm alone in being bothered by reading plot summaries in movie reviews.

Amy Austin | October 23, 2007
I recommend "blurb"-type info... of the nature you see in the guide on CATV. ;-) These are usually pretty good at summing up without spoilers.

Steve West | October 23, 2007
That works for me, too.

Aaron Shurtleff | October 23, 2007
Well, Scott, I'd like to think I try not to reveal too much both times I reviewed a movie here. I think the best answer would be that I try to do it like I would want to see it done (which I assume you would too). That said, I wouldn't mind seeing it done, that way if we want to not read it, it's easy to skip that section as opposed to reading the review, and there it all is, whether you wanted to read it or not.

I didn't think the old reviews were all that bad about spoilers anyhow, though... ;)

Lori Lancaster | October 24, 2007
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Scott Hardie | October 25, 2007
Thanks for the answers. I agree with all of you.

I have added the "premise" field above the review wherever it appears. Moving that information into a separate field allows each user to hide it as desired.

Jackie Mason | October 26, 2007
[hidden by request]

Greg Bair | October 26, 2007
Like Scott, I skip over plot summaries when I read reviews, and I don't say much about the plot when I write reviews, either. In my opinion, the basic premise and anything that's revealed in the first ten minutes or so is fair game. After that, I'd prefer if plot details were left out altogether. I take it one step further and refuse to read reviews of movies I'm certain to see. If I know I'm going to write a review of a movie, I try to avoid reading any other reviews because I'd like my review to be my own and not influenced by other people's opinions. For movies that I'm on the fence on, I will read only the stubs at Rotten Tomatoes.

The opposite effect is that for movies I know I'll never see (dumb torture horror flicks, for example), I'll go ahead and read the entire plot at moviespoilers.

Amy Austin | October 26, 2007
Heheh... ditto. That's if/when I even bother with reviews at all...

Scott Hardie | October 27, 2007
Same here, Jackie and Greg. It seems you're in good company.

Greg Bair | October 28, 2007
I may be an extreme example. Often, I don't even read the blurbs on dust jackets, or the blow-out paragraphs in magazines.