The Social Network (2010)

Studio: Columbia Pictures / Relativity Media / Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release: October 1, 2010
Home Release Date: January 11, 2011
Director: David Fincher
PG-13

Review by James Klein

I'll be honest with you folks; I am not on Facebook. It isn't so much as I am against it as I think it can be a useful tool but I know how addicting Facebook can be. I have seen it with family and friends and I even know that back in the day when I did Myspace, it somewhat became addicting. I finally realized that I am just not that interesting of a person and I was just wasting my time. That's how I felt about watching The Social Network. I wasted two hours watching this cold, boring film.

As most of you already know, The Social Network is about Mark Zuckerberg's creation of Facebook. The film starts off with him in college and how he came about creating Facebook. This I found to be the most interesting part of the film; he gets dumped by his girlfriend. This billion dollar idea Facebook all stems from a break-up? Looks that way. So Mark (who was also drunk at the time) decides to blog about his break-up in a very mean-spirited way and posts it for all to see. As if that isn't enough, he hacks into other colleges and scans in all the women's faces that go to the college, creating a poll for guys to rate "whose hotter"? This causes a spiral of events in Mark's life as he slowly gets the idea of creating Facebook.

One of the many problems I have with this movie is that the movie makes it out like Mark created Facebook from his own idea. But I remember social networks that I belonged to like Friendster and Myspace that did almost the exact same thing as Facebook does before Facebook had even come out. This is briefly talked about in this film but in no way was this idea original. I'd be curious to know what the creators of these social networks think of Facebook and of this film.

Another issue I have with this film is the jumping around of various events. I was lost several times as to what was going on. Everyone in the film talks a mile a second as if they had just drank four espresso's and a bottle of Jolt cola. We then keep going forward and backwards in time during Mark's life as well as two different court hearings with Mark as he was sued by two brothers from Harvard who say they came up with the idea and his best friend who was the CEO of Facebook that Mark more or less screwed over. Once I start getting lost in a film, my lack of interest is out the door and I get bored quickly. As I said before, I don't do Facebook so already my interest is very small and now within 30 minutes into the film, I am already looking at the clock wondering how much more of this film is left.

Director David Fincher is also not my cup of tea. He has made some very popular films that people have loved such as Seven, The Game, and Fight Club. And all of his films I have never cared for and it's usually for the same reasons: his films are cold and offer me as a viewer nothing to gain from aside for some interesting technical choices. His films may look great but I am never invested in his films emotionally. And much like The Social Network, I don't care for the characters. It isn't that Mark is likable or not (he's not) but I just am not drawn into him. I simply don't care what happens to him and that's also because I don't care about what's happening within the story. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has always been overrated to me and I have never cared for his films. But what do I know, he won the Academy Award for this and Fincher was nominated Best Director. But did you see the man at the Academy Awards that night?  He just looked pissed off being there. When The Social Network did win any awards, he was always mentioned and every time the camera cut to him, he looked so serious and miserable. This kind of attitude is displayed in almost all his films.

I can nitpick about various subplots that go nowhere or the hilariously bad CGI of characters breath during a cold night but you're going to see The Social Network either way and I am sure most of you already have. Facebook has over 500 billion "customers". So fans of Facebook will most likely see this film and find it interesting. I'm one of the few who found it dull, cold and I think in maybe 10 years, this film will be really dated. The blu ray does look and sound great and includes two commentary tracks that fans may enjoy. I just pray we don't see a semi-sequel about the person who created Twitter.