If you've read movie reviews from critics on a website, or in magazines, or in newspapers, you probably noticed that they don't do reviews on all the movies they've seen. So how come when it came to me and my "I Saw That Movie" blog, I was ambitious enough to think that I can do written reviews for ALL the movies I've seen since I started this website? It was a worthy goal to try and achieve, but wow did that eat up a lot of my time! That's time that I could instead be spending watching a movie or TV show that I can talk about on the "Spoilers Pleeze" podcast. That's also time that I could just relax at home, spending time with my wife and dog. That could be time when I get some much needed sleep.
Although those movie reviews I do only consist of about two to four paragraphs, the time it took for somebody like myself to produce written work that I was satisfied enough to share to the rest of the online community ate up a lot of my daily hours. Far more than I prefer, for work that is mostly done for free. Yes, I am aware that there are in fact some people reading those reviews I've written, and truly I am thankful. However, most of those people that I am aware of that has read them, can actually personally talk to me in real life anyway. Seems almost unnecessary to spend the chunk of time writing them, if it's easy to just ask me about a movie in person.
Where's my incentive to keep the #isawthatmovie blog going the way it was originally created for? If anything else, these past three months where I literally did not do written reviews for several movies that I've seen, actually gave me more incentive not to continue the blog. I still did write reviews for certain movies, so it wasn't that I completely abandoned it. So that give and take is maybe the way it's going to go from now on.
My new intentions with the I Saw That Movie blog...
- On a weekly basis, I will still write at least one or two full non-spoilers movie reviews. Presumably the big movie releases of the week, or a film I feel really passionate enough to write a full review of.
- Other movies that don't get full written reviews, will get general bullet points on the positives and negatives, plus a grade.
- If a reader would really prefer me to write a full review of a movie, they are welcome to contact me via email (whowhatwhereswhy@gmail.com) or social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), or on the website posts themselves, and I will make that extra effort to write one.
Another big change for the #isawthatmovie blog is the grading system. Instead of the current five grading options, there will now be six of them, since I am now adding a "LIKED IT" into the mix...
- LOVED IT - equivalent grades of an "A+" or "A"
- ENJOYED IT - equivalent grades of an "A-," a "B+," or a "B".
- LIKED IT - equivalent grades of a "B-," or a "C+"
- IT'S OKAY - equivalent grades of a "C" or a "C-"
- IT'S MEH - equivalent grades of a "D+" or a "D"
- IT'S TERRIBLE - equivalent grades of a "D-" or an "F"
The reasoning behind adding the "LIKED IT" grade, is because the previous model was apparently not precise enough. When I grade a movie with a "LOVED IT" or "ENJOYED IT," it was obvious that I'm saying it's a good to great film. However sometimes there are movies that while I think deserve to be considered great, I myself don't necessarily love them. Using 2017 as an example, there were a couple of movies I gave the "LOVED IT" grade, but I should have really given an "ENJOYED IT" instead. Now that I'm including the equivalent grade of an "A-" into the "ENJOYED IT" grade, I can freely toss in more movies into that distinction.
Adding the "LIKED IT" grade also serves a similar purpose. There are many movies that I thought deserved a "B-" or a "C+" that were more than just "OKAY," because I did find them very entertaining to watch. It left me having to debate on whether those movies have to be an "ENJOYED IT" or an "IT'S OKAY," which is where the "LIKED IT" tag comes in. Most people tend to react poorly to movies that are deemed "OKAY," and see that grade more in the mediocre average range of a "C" or "C-," so that's where it's going to be now for sure.
The rest of the grades of "IT'S MEH" and "IT'S TERRIBLE" more or less stays the same, and people generally aren't confused on how to feel about those distinctions.
So there we go. I would still prefer to write full movie reviews as much as I can, and that also applies to the past movies I've seen that I still did not do one for. However, there is a slight weight off my shoulder with the knowledge that I'm not forcing myself to write reviews for all the movies I see anymore. Who knows? I might change my mind again later on.