Himmelberg, "The Social Network" Review

Before going to see "The Social Network", I was excited and intrigued ,because I am an avid facebook user, but I didn't have any real expectations because I didn't know exactly what angle they were going to tell or what exactly it was going to be about; I simply knew it based on facebook. Though the movie is definitely an interesting topic for all ages, because facebook is such a huge part of our culture today, it is especially poignant to my generation. I think it would suffice to say that we are probably the primary users of facebook, so this movie really hits home for us.We have grown up in a new age of technology and watched it evolve before our eyes in the matter of only a decade. The internet being one of the leading technologies that has changed, Facebook especially. The only real worry I had before seeing it was that maybe it was a little to early to making a movie about facebook. A writer or story teller cannot fully and correctly tell a story until they are removed from the situation and have had time to reflect on it. Facebook is still a growing website and all the people that are depicted in the movie are still very much alive and young, so my only hesitation was that maybe the makers of this film had decided to make this movie too soon because the material was still very raw.

Overall I ended up really liking the movie. It was all about the creation and beginning of Facebook. What really caught my interest though was that instead of focusing solely on the company/website and it's formation, it focused on the people behind the company and all the conflicts that went on in order for facebook to be what it is today. The angle that they take, focusing on the people rather than the idea is great, because all humans can relate better to a story if they have felt a similar emotion and know what the characters are going through. It was also fun to hear the full background story behind the phenomenon that is facebook and by adding in the characters stories woven into the development of the company makes it more real for the audience. We see strong friendships, jealousy, deceit and love throughout the movie. All of these things are so perfectly portrayed to seem very juvenile and young, fitting Mark perfectly at that age. They portray Mark and his friends 20 year old minds, which probably had no idea that this small website they created just because it was "cool", would become sucha huge deal.

The other very interesting thing that the director does is that throughout the movie you go back and forth between the past and the present. To learn the full story of facebook you start out before the idea comes into Mark Zuckerburg's head, finding out the trigger that caused him to start thinking about Facebook. Then we flash to a deposition in the present, because Mark is being sued by two different people at the same time. So part of the movie is in a room asking questions about the lawsuit and the rest of the movie is in the past painting the picture scene by scene of how the company got started out of a Harvard University dorm room. By taking us back and forth we get more attached to the characters and find out more about them then we would have from simply seeing what they were like in the past. We also get a lot more movement, which keeps the audience watching and not getting bored. I think this style of film is very well done and suits its purpose perfectly.

There were only a few things that I came away from the movie thinking. First, it warned you about the internet and how easy it is to get information once it is put up there. It perfectly portray's the culture of our society today, we don't like actual interaction with people anymore, we'd rather talk to them on the computer and be able to look at them without the hassle of physically being with them(absolute laziness) One thing that the movie doesn't do that would have been useful is that it doesn't tell us what facebook is like today. Facebook has evolved incredably since the early 2000's ( which is where this movie is left off ). It would have really been interesting if they had, made a flash to the recent present and shown what facebook is like today. Another interesting thing that they could have done at the very end or during the credits would have been to put up real photos of the guys for their college days compared to now. All of the characters in the movie are real people so it would have been alot better if we go to see their real photos.