reviewsnthoughts

One of the first questions most reviewers ask when they either join a school newspaper staff or an online review site is “Do we have to only write positive reviews about (books, movies, or whatever), or can we write negative ones as well?”

The answer, of course, is no, of course not. A good review writer should always feel free to express his or her opinion about a place, product or service, especially in a consumer-review site such as Epinions or Viewpoints.  After all, your “mission” is to provide readers with the information to make a purchasing decision.

Now, writing a negative review doesn’t mean using a mean-spirited tone or being obnoxious just to make a point.  While it’s tempting to reduce a review about something you had a negative experience with to a minimalistic “This (fill in the blank) sucks,” it really doesn’t help a reader out much, especially if he or she wants to know about (fill in the blank) before making a purchase or going to, say, a restaurant or doctor’s office.

For instance, I once wrote a review of Jaws 4: The Revenge, the third (and lamest) sequel to Steven Spielberg’s classic horror/action adventure/drama, Jaws.

I suppose I could have merely written what Epinions calls an “Express Review” of 200 words or so which gave readers a brief synopsis of that 1987 movie and added “steer clear of this one” at the end, but I decided to use a wry tone which poked fun at the film’s badness while still being informative.
 

Jaws: The Revenge (also known as Jaws 4) is one of the best examples of totally worthless sequels. It makes  More American Graffiti look like a masterpiece worthy of a zillion Academy Awards, and it is even sillier than Jurassic Park III (which doesn’t even have a Michael Crichton novel to justify its existence on film).  Written by Michael de Guzman and directed by Joseph Sargent, this movie asks us to suspend our disbelief so much that we’d accept the following plot points:

1. White sharks can either come back from the dead or develop a sense of Mafia-like vendettas against members of a specific family.

2. White sharks can travel over 1100 miles from the cold waters off Long Island to the warm waters of the northern Caribbean to follow a particular person.

3. A person can have vivid flashbacks (through the magic of archival footage from Jaws) of events he or she did not witness in person.

Of course, not every negative review has to depend on biting humor along these lines, but it helps if you choose an entertaining-yet-informative approach instead of a savage and angry tone in a review of something you did not have a good experience.

 Remember, when writing a negative review, you need to engage, rather than alienate, your reader.   Angry ranting about a shoddy movie, unfriendly restaurant staff, or an unreadable book never helps you obtain a reputation as a trustworthy reviewer. 
  

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