how to judge a movie

Try to judge this one below:

When you want to produce films, it can be hard to know what to judge a movie script by. You can assess purely by its entertainment value or you can hold it to a higher standard. Every film should be able to hold an audience's attention and be entertaining, but to maximize the use of the cinema certain principles ought be followed.

You can't just tell any kind of story in a feature-length movie and expect it to play well. Certain stories fit in the cinema and some don't. Look for stories that have the following characteristics if you want to make sure it's deserving of the big screen.

Visual, Aural

If this screenplay you are reading has significant bits of information told in non-visual ways you may be setting yourself up for problems later. In movies people don't "realize" things. He or she can make a face in reaction to something but they cannot actually realize anything definitively because we would never know for sure. If the story turns on things that you cannot see or hear it won't easily become a film. If a significant amount of the entertainment value of the story comes from words used to describe things, you may be reading a novel that looks like a screenplay.

Progression

If the story seems to go in circles and not lead anywhere it might not need to be a movie. It might be 70 pages, but the scenes within may be better cut into pieces and consumed separately. Movies are about a single event and the give and take of the protagonist and antagonist. If these scenes in the movie don't seem to go toward a conclusion and just meander around, this may not be something you want to make as a film. It might be better off as an episodic series.

Thematic, Causal Scene Relation

Not only should the scenes move us toward an inevitable ending, the inclusion of scenes should be restricted to only those necessary for the story. Each and every scene should help the telling of the story by being a natural outgrowth of the previous scene. If you have a subplot story intertwined with your main story you need be sure it is thematically related, otherwise it will feel like two different stories instead of two takes on the same story. Each story need have the protagonist seeking related goals though they needn't both go through the same actions to reach them.

Climax, End Of The Line

If you have scenes that do grow out of each other and take the story closer and closer to the final act, you will want to make sure it doesn't stop before the end. There is a limit to human experience and that is what an audience wants in a feature-length movie. They want your protagonist to be forced to make the most difficult decisions ever and required to use the utmost efforts to prevail. They may or may not achieve what they want, but they will have had to do everything within their power while trying.

Character Dimensions

There are writers that never breathe life into their characters and some who make too many characters real. Depending on their function in the story they may or may not need be fully fleshed out. The more prominent a character is in the story the more dimensions should be revealed to us. It feels wrong if a bit character is more compelling than the main character and likewise if the main character never seems more than a stereotype.

Sub-Text In Text

Mostly in regards to dialogue, the text should never appear to mean precisely what it actually means in the story. If you want this film to have the aura of reality you need characters to feel like real people. When people want something they rarely ask for it directly. They hint, they complain, and they nag but they never ever come out and ask for what they actually want (at least at first). Your characters should be the same, and it's the basis for many scenes. A scene is nothing but a progression of actions, the next always being more difficult than the first. It's more difficult to be direct because the stakes are higher, so we always try the easiest way first.
Movies are just at least 70 minutes of 24 photos a second with a soundtrack, but there are qualities that will help a story thrive in that environment. These qualities will help you make sure the story you're telling isn't just long and seen on a big screen, but wants to be thus.