There is so much information available on movies and documentary films today, that it is possible to form a detailed opinion about a film even before you have watched it! With sites that provide in depth reviews and elaborate methods to rate films, some of the experience of watching the actual film has already taken place in the mind!
Reviews, of course, help us make the seemingly right choices while deciding whether we want to watch a particular film, and there are plenty of sites, some with more followers than others that write film reviews. There are generic reviews and then there are well known reviewers who have their unique voice and style.
The entire movie going experience that once consisted of reading a magazine or newspaper to know about a film and then going to a cinema and watching the film, can now take place online. Not only can you read reviews online, but you can also watch movies and documentaries online.
There are many sites that are dedicated to specific kinds of films as well. For example, there is a website that has a free movie database but only has independently made films. That is, it has films made by students and independent film makers and not large studio blockbusters.
The internet is a marvellous space for showcasing such alternative media as it can be too costly to distribute indie films the traditional way. Plus the internet has a wide reach, making it very good from the point of view of a global platform.