One of the challenges we faced while creating this website was how to review cyberpunk films. In general a cyberpunk movie review is just like a review of any other movie.
Five general approaches
As we see it, there are five general different types of reviews:
- Bare bones movie review
- Movie opinion
- Complete storyline
- Thematic analysis
- Academic film analyis
If you go onto IMDB, you can always get a very bare-bones stripped down review of any movie. These sometimes strike us as so generic that you could literally change the names and slap the review onto a different movie. Still sometimes, that is all that is required. For a quick lookup of a fact – perhaps you forgot the name of the main actress this is perhaps the most useful kind of review.
The second type is a movie opinion. Some of these are very good, others are hardly more than a ranting forum post out somewhere on the internet. Every one of these is very personal and thus holds a limited value for the reader. The quality and relevance depends largely on how similar you are to the person reviewing the movie.
The third approach is what can be seen on movie pages on Wikipedia. The whole storyline is meticulously written out. On the upside, you now know exactly what is going to happen, why and when. On the downside, reading this kind of review generally eliminates any surprises. After having read all the spoilers, what is the motivation to actually go out and see the movie.
The thematic analyis type deals very in-depth with the themes that are covered in the movie. Some of which you might not have even caught while watching the movie yourself. As far as cyberpunk movies are concerned, a certain number of reoccuring themes are very typical and even crucial for the enjoyment of the movie. However, after having read all of that “smart stuff” you still don’t know if you actually want to watch the movie. Moreover, sometimes when reading these kinds of reviews, things are interpreted into the movie in a manner that can only be characterized as haphazard and drawn out of thin air.
The final category deals with the way that the movie is made: Camera angles, use of colors and lightning to convey the mood. While both of us are wholly unqualified to judge a movie on these merits, we get the impression that this kind of analysis is only of interest to a films major in university. For the general audience, such a review hardly brings any value.
To be fair, this strict categorization of reviews is hardly ever encountered in precisely this form in the wild. Most often the different review styles are mixed and combined to create a hybrid review format that attempts to be broad while avoiding some of the pitfalls of the individual categories.
Our chosen approach
For our cyberpunk movie reviews, we take a mixed approach. First of all, we want to give the reader as much information as sensible without spoiling the movie. Our site is intended to help you find good movies to watch. All the information we give and the ratings in particular are mere tools to help you find movies that will fit with your personal preferences.
Here is what we are trying to avoid:
- Regurgitating facts in a boring, sterile manner
- Spoiling any major plot details for you
- Throwing philosophical musings at you
- Telling you stuff you don’t want to know
While we are still improving our writing and reviewing, we have settled on the following basic format for now. We start off by giving you a short synopsis that essentially covers the first few minutes of the plot while suggesting the general direction that the movie will take later on. Then we provide you with some standard information, give you the names of the actors, director budget. This is followed by our in-depth ratings that are described in detail here and by which you can find a movie using the Finder. Finally, we offer our recommendation on whether the movie is worth your time. In the recommendation, we also address the main themes and give you our own (personal) opinion. Because the look of a cyberpunk movie is sometimes just as important as the story, we make sure to sprinkle our reviews liberally with pictures that are representative.