Я прочитал отзыв о фильме и решил посмотреть его.

Прочитал is the perfective past form of прочитать, which means to read something through / finish reading it.

In this sentence, the speaker means:

• first, I read the review
• then, I decided to watch the film

So the reading is presented as a completed action. That is why прочитал is natural here.

By contrast, читал is imperfective and would focus more on the process or habit of reading, not on the completed result.

For the same basic reason: решил is the perfective past form, meaning decided as a completed moment of decision.

The sentence tells a sequence of finished events:

1. Я прочитал отзыв о фильме
2. и решил посмотреть его

So решил means the person came to a decision after reading the review.

Решал would usually suggest a process like was deciding or kept trying to decide, which does not fit this sentence as well.

Because отзыв is the direct object of прочитал.

The verb прочитать takes a direct object in the accusative case, so отзыв here is accusative.

However, отзыв is:

• masculine
• singular
• inanimate

For masculine singular inanimate nouns, the accusative form is the same as the nominative. So:

• nominative: отзыв
• accusative: отзыв

That is why the form does not visibly change.

The preposition о meaning about requires the prepositional case.

So:

• фильм = nominative
• о фильме = prepositional, meaning about the film

This is a very common pattern in Russian:

• говорить о чём? = to talk about what?
• читать о чём? = to read about what?
• думать о чём? = to think about what?

So отзыв о фильме means a review about the film or more naturally a review of the film.

In this sentence, отзыв means a review, comment, or opinion about something.

With о фильме, it most naturally means a review of a film.

Be careful not to confuse it with English recall or anything related to calling back. In Russian, отзыв often means:

• a review
• feedback
• a written opinion

So прочитал отзыв о фильме means read a review of the film.

Посмотреть is the perfective infinitive, and here it means to watch as a complete action.

After решил, Russian often uses an infinitive to say what someone decided to do:

• решил посмотреть = decided to watch
• решил купить = decided to buy
• решил поехать = decided to go

Using посмотреть suggests the speaker decided to watch the film as a whole event.

If you used смотреть, it would sound more like focusing on the process of watching rather than the completed act.

Его here refers to фильм.

So the meaning is:

• отзыв о фильме = a review of the film
• решил посмотреть его = decided to watch it

Even though фильм appears inside the phrase о фильме, it is still the thing being referred to.

So его means it, specifically the film.

Russian often includes the object pronoun when it is clear and relevant, just as English does in watch it.

Here, его makes the sentence explicit:

• I read a review of the film
• and decided to watch it

You could sometimes omit the object in conversation if the context is obvious, but посмотреть его is fully natural and clear.

Here его is accusative, because it is the direct object of посмотреть.

But the form его can represent more than one case in Russian. For masculine/neuter singular pronouns, его can be:

• genitive
• accusative

In this sentence, the role tells you the case:

• посмотреть кого? что? → accusative
• so его = him/it in the accusative

Since фильм is masculine and inanimate, его here means it.

Russian usually does not need a separate form like the English past perfect (had read) in sentences like this.

Russian often simply uses past tense verbs plus context and word order to show sequence:

• Я прочитал отзыв о фильме
• и решил посмотреть его

The order itself shows:

1. the review was read first
2. the decision came after

So Russian can express this naturally without a special had read form.

Yes, я can often be omitted in Russian, because the verb ending already shows the person:

• прочитал = I read if the speaker is masculine
• прочитала = I read if the speaker is feminine

However, including я is completely normal. It may be used:

• for clarity
• for emphasis
• simply because the speaker chose to say it

So both can work:

• Я прочитал отзыв о фильме и решил посмотреть его.
• Прочитал отзыв о фильме и решил посмотреть его.

The version with я is slightly more explicit.

It tells us that the speaker is masculine.

In the Russian past tense, singular verbs agree with the gender of the subject:

• masculine: прочитал
• feminine: прочитала
• neuter: прочитало

So this sentence is spoken by a male speaker, or at least it is grammatically marked as masculine.

If the speaker were female, it would be:

• Я прочитала отзыв о фильме и решила посмотреть его.

Yes, Russian word order is more flexible than English, but the original order is the most neutral and natural.

The sentence:

• Я прочитал отзыв о фильме и решил посмотреть его.

sounds straightforward and neutral.

You could move things around for emphasis, for example:

• Отзыв о фильме я прочитал и решил посмотреть его.

But that changes the focus and may sound more marked or literary.

For learners, the original order is the best one to use.

Here и connects two actions in sequence:

• прочитал
• решил

It literally means and, but in context it also suggests and then:

• I read a review of the film and then decided to watch it.

Russian often uses simple и where English might use:

• and
• and then
• sometimes just a pause between events

So the sequence is understood from context, not from a special tense form.