Review of The Social Network (2010) by Brendan C — 16 Apr 2013

87%.

The Social Network is one of David Fincher's best films for sure. It shows how much of a range he has as a film director when you compare this to his other stuff. It is a fascinating film that is interesting throughout. The first thing I did after I saw this in theaters was get a Facebook, and I was going through a period of time where I was just fascinated by the site because of this movie. I was also a web developer for a while and this movie really inspired me to get better at doing that. The movie really did affect my life for a period of time. That is why I loved it so much. I don't know how accurately the film portrayed what really happened, because of legal issues there were certain parts of the case that couldn't be revealed. It did leave me wondering about that even though I found it fascinating. So the only flaw with the film may have been that it wasn't completely accurate.

The film starts off with Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisnenberg) being dumped by his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), and immediately returning home to blog awful things about her and make a website called Facesmash. The site will show two pictures of girls, and they person who is on the site would have to vote which girl is hotter. It crashes Harvard's server because it got 450 visitors, and over 22,000 page hits in its first four hours online. Of course he gets into huge trouble for it and everybody begins to hate him. The whole thing was basically a build up for Facebook in my opinion. I think it is the idea that inspired it all. He would then learn from that experience that people want to see their friends online, and look at pictures of them.

After that he is approached by two rowers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie hammer), and Divya Narendra (Max Minghella). They ask him to make a website for them which he agrees to do, but he doesn't like their ideas for it. Mark is an arrogant guy and he thinks he is better then them. His arrogance is what leads him to think that he can do something better, and he actually was right. He comes up with the idea for "The Facebook." He thinks it would be a better idea for the site to have a thing where you would have to get permission to see somebody else profile. He had more ideas at the time too, but he approached his best friend at the time Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) about it, and he loves the idea.

Zuckerberg spends about a month working on "The Facebook" and avoiding the Winklevoss twins. He sends them all of these message saying to them that he is making their website when he is doing something entirely different. He was very secretive about it, and he led them on the entire time. Once he launched the site it became a huge thing on campus, and people started to saying to each other "facebook me." The Winklevoss twins found out about it, and they immediately sent him a letter telling him that he stole their idea, and that they will take legal action against him. The film switches back and forth between the depositions, and the flashbacks of everything that happened.

I found the film thought provoking, because it made me think about weather or not he stole it. I think that he would have come up with the idea anyways, even if the Winklevoss twins didn't approach him. I think that because he seemed to be heading towards the idea of Facebook with Facesmash. I think that the Winklevoss twins just helped him come up with it faster, but if they didn't approach him it would have just taken a little bit longer for him to come up with it. The fact that they had to hire Zuckerberg to do their website shows that they aren't very creative, or original. I think their argument was just that he would not have come up with the idea of Facebook of they had not approached him. I think the Winklevoss twins are juts spoiled rich guys who are mad because for the first time they didn't get what they wanted. Zuckerberg said that too at one point, and I agreed with him one hundred percent.

However what happened to Eduardo Saverin was awful. Sean parker (Justin Timberlake) the founder of Napster joined the company. Saverin didn't like that, but Zuckerberg felt like they needed him. Saverin accidently signed a paper that allowed them to delude his shares down to almost zero. I think he is an idiot for signing a contract that allowed them to do that, and he should have had a lawyer with him because he did it to himself. However Zuckerberg is a jerk for doing that, and that isn't even legal. I think Saverin should have sued for sure, because he was a victim while the Winklevoss twins were just spoiled rich kids who didn't get what they wanted for once. I felt bad for Saverin, but I felt like he was lucky to be a part of it. All he did was support it financially, he didn't come up with any ideas for it, I think it was all Zuckerberg's genius. Even though I felt he was lucky, I think he had a terrible thing done to him, and he should have sued.

Sean Parker had a big part in this movie, and Justin Timberlake did a very good job portraying him. He is one of the few singers who can act in my opinion. They made him look really bad in my opinion. He seemed like a really paranoid guy who was always afraid that somebody was after him. He seemed like a bad guy, and when you watch the movie and think about it you will probably see what I see.

Facebook now has over a billion users worldwide, and it has gone public in the stocks. It is a freakishly addicting site that everybody seems to be on at several points during the day. It has effected my life and the lives of others around me. This movie tells the story of how it was made, and the law suits that followed it being made. It is a fascinating movie, that is thought provoking and just awesome. One of David Fincher's best, and one that everybody needs to see.