Is it because the movie has a touching yet exhilarating story? Is it the amazing set of characters? or even the actors’ great performance? Well… what about a top tier soundtrack that immersed you into the setting? or does the camerawork do that better?
You probably never ask yourself these questions when your walking out of a theater. To be completely honest, a great movie will just feel right in your gut most of the time. It’s often that internal emotion of being overwhelmed yet perfectly satisfied in what you just watched. That right there is what makes a movie “amazing”… but let’s take a closer look at what causes that perfect emotion. Seriously, what on earth makes a great movie great?
Well let’s break up a movie into a few of its main components and then look at them each one by one:
- Story
- Sound
- Visuals
SPOILER ALERT!
STORY
The story is quite essentially the heart of a movie. It’s what initially pulls you into the experience. Genre plays a big role into the story, but whether it’s a love story, an action film, or a comedy, a truly amazing story connects with you from start to end. Most of the time, a unique story is what works best in accomplishing this task. The excitement of experiencing something new and unexpected immediately pulls you into the film.
Fig. 1. Still from Arrival, a film from Paramount Pictures in 2016 and directed by Denis Villeneuve
One of the best examples of a unique and intriguing story I can refer to is the story of Arrival. Arrival follows a non-linear plot in which the main character explores the arrival of an alien ship on planet earth and the reason as to why they are here. The story seems rather simple but the non-linear aspect is what truly makes the story.
The main character’s life is displayed to the audience completely out of order. The audience is essentially exposed to the end without even knowing it until the very end of the movie. This whole style tied in with the mysteriousness of the genre completely pulls viewers into the story, making it extremely memorable and intriguing. Then finally at the ending, all of the story comes together in perfectly satisfying way that explains everything prior in the movie.
SOUND
The score and soundtracks that play in the background of the movie are incredibly utilized in great movies. The detail, tone, pace, and emotion in the scores are often formatted perfectly to complement the atmosphere of the film. Every scene becomes deeper and more meaningful. Whether its happiness, sadness, excitement, or fear especially, the sounds you hear magnify what you experience in every single case. Sound completely changes the way you remember and connect with a film’s plot and message.
Fig. 2. The main theme of Interstellar from 2014, composed by Hans Zimmer
This theme is played through the most emotional and moving scenes in movies. In reality, it’s one of the main reasons why those scenes are so impactful. As the characters drift through space or attempt to escape a gigantic black hole, parts of this theme play and bring out some of the deepest thoughts and suspenseful realities in the film. Listen for yourself or even watch the movie!
VISUALS
Everyone has heard of the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Well visuals in films are exactly that. Whatever the dialogue and script cannot convey, the visuals do. Whether it’s the most picturesque and detailed pictures of monsters in horror movies, objects in beautiful settings, fight scenes in superhero movies, the visuals demonstrate the most important parts of a film.
Fig. 3. Still from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,a film from Columbia Pictures in 2018 and directed by Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Bob Persichetti
Spider-Verse utilizes one of the most unique art styles amongst all animated pictures. Every single visual and frame in the movie looks like it was pulled straight out of a comic book. Sometimes it’s the little dialogue bubbles, the motion-blur of characters in high intensity scenes, or the bright and vivid colors that keep your attention perfectly focused on the film. The visuals in Spider-Verse help turn the comic-book art style into a whole fictional universe. They add a sense of depth and “pop” to the film.
Well, that ends it up for this blog post. I know it was incredibly long, but I hope it helped you finally find at least part of an answer to the question “What actually makes a movie amazing?” Future posts will be shorter and will mostly focus on individual movies. Feel free to comment movies or ideas you want me to discuss for next time!
This article by Film School Rejects covers these same topic and components of films very similarly. They highlight the more specific aspects of a movie, such as score, cinematography, and ending, but this post’s analysis still carries and flows well along with theirs! Please read their article as well if you want to dive further into what makes a movie great!
Also, if you haven’t viewed any of the films above, I highly recommend you do. All of them are incredibly fun to watch and experience.