Example sentences
zhè这diàn电yǐng影hǎo好kàn看ma吗？
Is this movie good?
wǒ我men们qù去kàn看diàn电yǐng影ba吧。
Let's go watch a movie.
About this word
电 is "electric" and 影 is "shadow, projected image", so a movie is literally an "electric shadow". That fits film well, light thrown onto a screen, and 影 keeps the sense of a cast image in 影子 shadow, 摄影 photography and 合影 a group photo. 电影 names the film itself or the art form; add 院 "hall" and 电影院 is the building, the same 院 as in 医院 and 学院. Two collocations to fix now: the verb is 看, and the measure word is 部, so 一部电影.
The story behind the character
电
The bronze 电 is a bolt of lightning, zigzagging down. The traditional 電 added a 雨 (rain) on top but kept the lightning below. Xu Shen wrote 电, 阴阳激耀也. The electricity in your phone began as the bolt splitting the sky.
影
影 is 景 plus 彡, three strokes of streaks. 景 is 日 (sun) over 京, the sun up on a high place, bright and clear. Add the streaks and you have the dark shape a thing throws when the light is behind it. 影 came along after Xu Shen's dictionary, so the parts tell the story: sun, height, shadow. 电影, a movie, is literally electric shadows.