Blog Post #4: The Social Network Movie Review

As of October 4, 2012, 1 billion people around the world have a Facebook account. And to think that just 8 years ago, this Facebook idea was just an idea that stemmed from a guy that wanted to get back at  a girl that had broken his heart.

The movie The Social Network answers all the questions about how our beloved, favorite social networking site came about. The main character Mark Zuckerberg, (Jesse Eisenberg) is a nerdy, yet manipulative person who never seems to have any mental task defeat him. His efforts to make a social networking site started after his girlfriend, Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), breaks up for him for basically being heartless. Zuckerberg took his anger out through blogging and creating a site to choose between "hotness levels" between girls. His immature site ends up going pretty viral in the Harvard population, which catches the eyes of two brothers and fellow students, who have the idea for the original Facebook. Zuckerberg "steals" their idea and works with his best friend, Eduardo Savarin (Andrew Garfield) to create a site that will be accessed by college campuses around the world. From there, Facebook grasps the attention of the very manipulative entrepreneur, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who takes the idea with Zuckerberg and makes Facebook global. The movie is based around a court cases with Zuckerberg's legal issues, and refers to the past.

The movie has a very college-feel, with many of the scenes involving bars, clubs, and alcohol. Zuckerberg's intense motives ultimately derived from his breakup with his girlfriend, which seems to frequently happen in college settings. Zuckerberg's stubborn and egotistical personality makes him lose and screw over his best friend Eduardo, in his nonstop effort to make the Facebook project his own. These different elements of broken hearts, tested friendship, and social networking all contribute to the success of this movie.

Through the constant changes between past and present, makes the movie a little difficult to follow, and leaves the viewer forced with a lot of information at one time. The story line seemed to be to lengthy to really play out some of the situation, so we are left feeling like it has moved too fast. Although it moved fast, sometimes the plot itself left me with boredom, specifically during the court cases, but other times really grasps my attention, like during the more heated arguements. Zuckerberg is completely unsympathetic, so it is hard to really connect with his character, but this almost has a positive effect on the movie because it shows how much he is willing to diminish his relationships for his own success.