What Makes a Good Film

Hint: Its not one thing

Asking "What Is a Good Film?" is very broad. A film can succeed in pleasing on different levels, visually, in sound design, in writing, in acting... and every other award show category. But unless the film as a sum of its parts can achieve your reception of the intended feeling and message in a exciting way, it wont resonate with your audience like truly great piece of cinema. 

There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.

- Frank Capra

To start simple, a good film, you might say, is one that excites an audience. Whether it be as simple as an engaging relationship drama between that pale girl and an Abercrombie vampire, a deranged serial killer running amok the back roads, or a intergalactic saga of Farmboy bravery , different films speak to and excite different people. And how does one excite an audience? A well crafted film is one that makes connections with the viewer, relations in the subconscious that stimulate psychological and metaphysical existence .... blah blah blah.  And explosions.

Dig me this, why is a film good? Because you want to be Indiana Jones. 

Tell me more.

I have tried to define what I believe comprises a good film. Films are interesting and/or exciting to people because they achieve one or more of three things:

Have Characters Who Do Interesting Things

Lets think about the word interest. What interests you? Lets say I like adventure and the thrill of near death. But will you actually do that, of course not. When Indy is about to fall off of a speeding truck onto the rough sands,  the viewer feels that's who they are. We don't want to just see Indy leap off cars. We want to imagine and relate to feel were also along for the ride. 
Alternatively, Indy always gets the girl.

Have Relate-table Messages or Characters

Similar to having character do things you fantasize about experiencing, having a character that is going through an experience you have gone through and relating to that character on a emotional level. You want the character to succeed, you want them to overcome the challenge, and in doing so you feel accomplished of feel better that your issue feels resolved. Indy, for example, in The Last Crusade (spoiler free) must save his father from the Nazis (to say the least).He gets into Many of us have

Subvert Expectations

A film is exciting because you don't know what will happen next. A good film takes ideas and common perception and twists in a way that is new and fresh, combining older work and synthesizing brand new ideas from the ashes of understanding. You were expecting the movie to end? Nope, it was all a dream, and the trees killed everyone.  Pulling again from Raiders of the Lost Ark, there is a famous scene in which Indy is about to fight an expert swordsman who's trained meticulously in the scimitar arts...

And Indy just shoots him . The essence of comedy is subversion, and it works in full extent here. Not a surprise that it is one of the most memorable scenes from the film. Another very interesting thing that Spielberg did in the Indy series was set up tropes in early films that actually get referenced in the later films! For example, later in this video Indy needs to kill some swordsmen, but his gun is missing.
(Note, the scene above was improvised by Speilberg because Harrison Ford was sick from the dirty water in the desert).

Disputes

I also disagree with the idea that a character has to grow to make a good film. I think it provides an audience closure, which people tend to understand respect. It also is perceived as the mark of an amateur writer. But ending a film without closure can sometimes be used as a tool to achieve the message of the film, an existentialist paradise.

And now for your enjoyment pleasure, Mr Harry s. Plinkett.