Amazon Prime Video: 1 Month Review

Hey guys!

So as I wrote about a while ago, I went ahead and got Amazon Prime which includes Amazon video over a month ago, and I’ve watched a couple of things on there, so I thought I would give it a little bit of a review.

If you don’t know what it is, Amazon Prime is a service from Amazon which you pay for which gets your free next day deliveries for a year; The service expanded and now includes free music and also free TV shows and films from their Amazon Video collection. It was on offer for £59/year, so I decided to get it since I shop a lot on Amazon.

I also watch a few films, many I’ve reviewed here on the blog, so I thought it would be a good thing to have.

They say they have over 5,000 films, that sounds like a huge amount! I have been buying Blu Rays for years, many of them I only watch once, so I thought this may stop me buying Blu Rays and I’ll use Amazon Video all the time. However, it won’t, and here’s why…

The big problem is the quality of the films. Most of the top films which are available to watch I’ve already seen or bought, and after a few days of looking around at the films, there’s probably only a handful which I can honestly say I really want to watch. One of them was Bad Moms, I was going to buy that on Blu Ray several months ago but I held off, and it’s part of the Amazon Video service so I watched it on there.

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Not Too Many Old Classics

One of the big problems is there is not enough of the big classic available for free, or should I say included with Prime. An example could be American Pie; You may want to sit down and watch it, and you’d think with over 5,000 films this would be included, but it’s not.

In fact you have to pay £6.99 if you want to watch it, however there is American Reunion available. You can actually buy the blu ray from Amazon themselves for £6! It was the same story for a lot of old favourites.

No Great Latest Movies

I like to watch the latest Blu Ray releases, and used to buy them as soon as they came out. I thought that possibly getting Amazon Video would mean I could watch them while I subscribed, so I wouldn’t have to pay £15 at a time.

But Amazon Video does not include the latest titles when they come out.

It Won’t Replace Your DVD/Blu Ray Collection

So you can’t get your favourites on demand, you can’t get the latest releases on demand. I thought that Amazon Video may be able to replace my Blu Ray collection, but it definitely cannot.

Maybe I misunderstood what Amazon Video was all about, but when you see the sheer number of titles available you kind of think it can only be good.

There is the option of buying or renting most titles on Amazon Video; But then as mentioned above, you can already do that via a DVD or Blu Ray, or other streaming services. There’s a serious amount of terrible films which you’ve never heard of with actors you’ve never heard of either.

The App Is Rubbish!

I have the XBOX One App, and I’ve seen the stand alone app for the smart TV’s, I can honestly say, they’re rubbish! There’s supposed to be over 5,000 films, and they’re set out so poorly! It’s so hard to find films, whenever you choose from the options you’ll find the same film in 4 or 5 options.

You can sort by genre and you’ll see a film, then sort by trending and you’ll see the same film, and then sort by popular and you’ll see the same film again! It makes finding films really difficult, if you just want to browse it’s unfriendly, and you can search by title, but then you’ll probably find that the film you want isn’t included and you can buy or rent it for money.

What It’s Good For

If you want to see something you’ve never seen before, or if you just really like watching films then it’s worth having. I found a film, The Perks Of Being A Wall Flower which I thought was really good. Another I watched was Adultword which was pretty good, and I probably wouldn’t have bought this or seen it otherwise.

Verdict

I think that Amazon Video is good for what I mentioned above, watching any old films, and the odd one you want to watch. There’s always films being added, so there’s always going to be something which I want to watch over time, but it’s not exactly what I expected.

Overall I think it’s worth the £59 as I get so much choice with films and there’s lots to discover, as well as the free next day delivery which I want, and the new series of The Grand Tour which is coming soon.