Description
the full assignment, the rubric, the prewriting questions, and a sample essay!
the Review Essay
The aim of any review is to offer an evaluative judgement of a product (work of art, film, music
album, etc.) through thinking critically about its merits and possible shortcomings. The focus of
the review should consist of your insights about the product. The rhetorical impact of the review
may persuade someone to watch or not watch the film, listen or not listen to the music, etc… and
it may also provide others an alternative lens through which to interpret the film or music.
The Task: Write a 750-word critical review of a documentary film or music album using a
strategic organization structure and a thesis. Make sure that you choose a documentary film and
not just a popular film!!!
Drafting Guidelines
Watch the movie or listen to the album (ideally more than once) and take notes. What do
you like about it specifically? What don’t you like? What surprised you?
Find a published review of your chosen film or album. Find a claim that you can agree or
disagree with and cite the author and the source in-text. Include the author’s name, where
the review was published, and the title of the review.
Use lots of vivid details to allow your readers to experience the film or album.
Set the appropriate tone for your review. According to authors Richard Johnson-Sheehan
and Charles Paine, “The tone of your review should reflect your reaction to the subject,
and your voice should be entertaining to your readers. If you were really excited by the
movie you saw, the tone of your review should reflect your excitement” (Writing Today).
Example Thesis: “For those brave enough to confront the realities of our world,
Unknown: Killer Robots is a haunting, thoroughly informative, and thought-provoking
documentary that will transform your perspectives on AI and the potential dangers it
brings to our planet.” -Jane Doe
Organizing Your Essay
1. Introduce the film and relevant details
2. Synopsis of the film; thesis statement
3. Strengths of the film
4. Weaknesses of the film
5. Weigh the film’s strengths against its weaknesses (conclusion)
6. Make a recommendation to particular audiences w/ reasons.
Review Essay Rubric
Write a 750-word critical review of a documentary film or album. To do well on this essay,
you need to do these things:
1. Craft a concise, accurate, and comprehensive synopsis of the film/album.
2. Create a succinct thesis that expresses your overall evaluation of the film/album
3. Develop in paragraph form a detailed evaluation of the film or album’s merits and
shortcomings. Think in terms of qualities, not summary.
4. Illustrate your evaluative claims with details from the film.
5. Reference at least one outside source.
6. Make a recommendation to potential audiences for particular reasons.
7. Carefully avoid all forms of plagiarism.
Is the synopsis/overview concise, accurate, and comprehensive? 10 points possible
Poorly conveyed synopsis
Synopsis presented concisely, accurately, and comprehensively
Is there a well-crafted thesis statement that expresses your overall evaluation of the quality
of the film or album? 10 points possible
No thesis or unclear thesis
Succinct, revealing thesis
Are the strengths and possible shortcomings developed and illustrated accurately? 5 points
possible
Weak argument and/or lack of relevant details as support
Well-developed and illustrated with details
Is there a well-reasoned recommendation of the film or album? 5 points possible
No attempt at recommendation
Well-reasoned recommendation
Does the writer’s style & tone entertain while reflecting the overall judgement of the film
or album? 5 points possible
Poor control of tone or flat
Carefully controlled, entertaining tone
Is there a reference to at least one other published review and is it cited correctly both in
text and on the Works Cited page according to MLA formatting guidelines? 10 points
possible
No attempt to reference another review or done shallowly
Meaningful reference
Accurate mechanics: grammar, spelling, and punctuation: 5 points possible
Abundant mechanical errors that negate the writer’s credibility
Virtually no errors
Total Points Possible: 50
Your Score:_______________
Film Critique Questions: Pre-Writing
The aim of the film is to try and get the audience to believe or see that …
What are the strengths of the film?
What are the weaknesses?
Before viewing this film or listening to this album, I believed this about the topic:
But after viewing this film or listening to this album, I learned that …
Although the film or album has persuaded me that ….I still doubt …
The most important insights I have gotten from this film or album are these:
The most significant questions this film or album raises for me are these:
Who would you recommend this film or album to, if anyone, and for what reasons?
Jane Doe
Professor Webb
COM 101-002
19 July 2023
Review of Unknown: Killer Robots
Artificial intelligence is at the forefront of many news outlets today. It’s taking the world
by storm and seems to be progressing faster than we can keep up. From ChatGPT, driverless
cars, and social media algorithms to killer drones in Ukraine, the reach of this new intelligence
extends into many aspects of our lives around the world. This leaves many of us asking
ourselves, “what is the future of AI” and “is it a threat?” The director of Unknown: Killer
Robots, Jesse Sweet, along with numerous other experts in the field, answers just that as they
delve into the lethal and lifesaving aspects of artificial intelligence. The film first drops us off
right on the battlefield as Brandon Tseng, a former US Navy Seal and co-founder of Shield AI,
explains how AI could completely alter the battlefield by providing greater safety for soldiers.
From then on, Sweet delves into the many implications that the introduction of these autonomous
robots to warfare could have, affecting not only soldiers but also civilian life. This brings the
film into the haunting atmosphere that takes hold of the various scientists, military officers,
reporters, and peace activists of the show as they speak about how AI could easily spiral out of
control. This concern is fueled by the apparent fact that the US military is going full throttle
towards AI integrated warfare to maintain an edge over the various global powers, particularly
China and Russia. For those brave enough to confront the realities of our world, Unknown:
Killer Robots is a haunting, thoroughly informative, and thought-provoking documentary
that will transform your perspective on AI and the potential dangers it brings to our
planet.
This documentary does an incredible job of visually displaying the topics in each
category presented. When we’re talking about new technologies, it is crucial to provide as much
clarity as possible for maximum understanding of already confusing topics. A good example of
this is towards the middle of the documentary when the audience is transported to Raleigh, North
Carolina where a clinical pharmacologist, Sean Ekins, explains why using AI to “figure out
drugs that will cure diseases” is a double-edged sword (47:13). He explains that artificial
intelligence can tweak molecules at a much higher rate than done before, enabling for millions of
more possibilities for new drugs. The filmmakers then showed us an animation of these
molecules multiplying and being manipulated, allowing us to visually understand exactly what is
being said in the film. This provides increased clarity, and we see these examples continuously
throughout the film. **Notice that the in-text citation for a film is the time stamp?**
Although this film did a fantastic job of explaining the information being presented,
viewers might feel that it dragged at times. A reviewer from Decider.com, John Serba, states that
“It’s [the documentary] not the most thrilling presentation of the material – lots of talking heads,
some over-the-shoulder observation, archival clips – but the topic is fascinating enough on its
own.” Many viewers agreed with this statement, although the filmmakers provided a fair amount
of crisp, clear cutaway scenes of the locations and technologies they were speaking about,
viewers were met with long strings of monotone dialogue with hardly any breaks.
Finally, this documentary had the chance to only touch on the fearmongering aspects of
AI, and although the filmmaker appears to have had an agenda to draw attention to the negative
and potentially dangerous impacts of AI, he also provided many positives, which helped to keep
this from being entirely one-sided or biased. This is a tremendous strength, as it is important to
have all the information about a topic instead of a cherry-picked version to allow the public to
take from it what they will. Something that stood out towards the end of the film was when Dan
Lordan, a man working in AI Integration at Lockheed Martin, explained how AI could help with
fighting forest fires. Lordan introduces viewers to The Cognitive Mission Manager, which is a
program that “takes aerial infrared video and processes it through…AI algorithms” (10:27). The
artificial intelligence in this program would tell firefighting crews where and how to strategically
fight forest fires. The inclusion of this information in the documentary was highly interesting and
demonstrated the potential of AI to help combat many of the climate change challenges the
world is facing today.
