What is it with....

book/film reviews that simply re-tell the plot describe the characters and nothing else. I know it's always happened, but since coming back to the sites, it now seems that every other of these reviews has no opinion whatsoever in them and are getting high rates from the majority (including some guides).

I mean some even give the ending away and still get high rates. Grrrr.

Know what you mean, I dislike it too. It is so easy to regurgitate a plot, much harder to critique it. I guess some people go for the soft option.

People will take the easy way out, especially when there's money involved (see also: food reviews that don't dscribe the important things), plus I think a lot of people look at Wikipedia and think that's how a review should look, so it's all fact and no opinion, experience or feedback.

I agree, just retelling the plot is quite frustrating, esepcially when they give away the end (That's usually an NU from me, there's nothing useful about a review with spoilers imo).

As for focusing on the characters for me that depends on the genre. I tend to read a lot of book reviews because I love to read and the two genre's I prefer are urban fantasy and romance (any kind of romance). Obviously if it's a romance novel I'm going to want a lot of opinion about the characters because that is the focus of romance novels (unless it's a paranormal romance or romantic suspense it's unlikely to actually have a plot!) but if it's an urban fantasy book that I want to know more about the believability of the world, the plot and maybe a little bit about the characters. For me it's not possible to generalise what I look for in a book review because I look for something different in each genre. To be honest when I'm looking for book reviews of books that I plan on buying I rarely look on dooyoo anyway.

I don't think it's right to complain about these reviews getting high rates because everyone has different things that consider useful.

I don't think it's all just people taking the easy way out. I had a lot of contact from people who did this (most of it in the form of aggrieved messagesabout my ratings). I think a lot of them genuinely have no idea what the difference is between telling someone the plot of a film (or book) and actually reviewing it.

"I'm just being thorough" was a claim I heard a few times.

hogsflesh wrote:

I don't think it's all just people taking the easy way out. I had a lot of contact from people who did this (most of it in the form of aggrieved messagesabout my ratings). I think a lot of them genuinely have no idea what the difference is between telling someone the plot of a film (or book) and actually reviewing it.

"I'm just being thorough" was a claim I heard a few times.

Of course, this can be very true. How many comments do you see saying "needs more info" and asking reviewers to be thorough and completeist. When the community sends out mixed messages it is hardly a surprise that new members make the odd faux pas.

yes that is often said, and often inappropriately. In fact more times I see it where it is not required than when it actually is. That is an example of giving exceptionally poor feedback...

On the other hand when I was travel guide, I would from time to time see reviews totally lacking in detail and then the author woud say something like "anyway I'm not going to tell you what it's like, go and discover it for yourself".

Now I thought this was soo not what one wants from a travel guide. In a travel guide you generally want to know the details. Unlike with a film or book guide. I think people can get confused by the different needs of different categories.

I'm probably at the other extreme end of the scale in that my plot descriptions are often limited to just a few lines. This is a deliberate decision on my part as I hate book/film reviews which give away key points. I prefer to start watching/reading knowing enough so that I can be reasonably confident I will enjoy it, without ever really knowing what to expect until it happens.

I guess it's a balancing act and everyone has a different tipping point where it becomes "too much". I REALLY hate people who give away spoilers, though

Spoilers to me are NU instantly, even with a SPOILER tag in the title. I'm not sure how much non-members see our review titles, so it's possible they'd pass that by and get stright into the review, only to find out that King King is Luke Skywalker's father or something.

I hate seeing reviews with "Spoiler" in the title. If you can't write the review without spoiling it, then don't bother!

Yep - quite...! I agree 100% and that would get a low rate from me too.

The film plot is 150 words long and so 50p. Jobe done for the lazy. Its dooyoos fault.