I'm thinking of deleting my facebook account, don't know if that's what the movie was aiming for

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2011)

Wow, seriously, last year I thought I was robbed because I didn't get to see The Social Network in the theater. The way some users were describing this film as "the defining movie of our generation" I thought I was missing the next "Godfather". I was trying to wait to buy the film on pre-view over at Blockbuster because again with the hype I assumed I would probably love the film, but I caught it on a movie channel this morning and have to say while it's definitely a good movie, I really hope this isn't the defining movie of my generation. The Social Network is loosely based on the rise of Facebook, the world's most popular website and IMO the fall of society. I'm sure it had good intentions in the first place as it was awesome to keep in touch with my college friends back in 2004, but it's gone down hill since then. But to the movie's credit, we are blessed with some pretty good actors, fast editing and a really interesting story. I think that's what really saved this movie from being just another addition to this hot trend.
In 2003, Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg is dumped by his girlfriend. He returns to his dorm drunk and writes a scathing blog entry about her. This inspires him to create an on-campus website called Facemash which allows users to rate the attractiveness of female students using photographs pilfered from various university systems. FaceMash's popularity and the fact that Mark created it in one night while drunk brings him to the attention of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their business partner Divya Narendra. Mark approaches his friend Eduardo Saverin and tells him of his idea for what he calls "The facebook", an online social networking website exclusive to Harvard University students. Eduardo agrees to help Mark, providing $1,000 to help start the site. Starting the rise and rise of the popular social network site Facebook.
Jesse Eisenberg as Mark I thought was what really stepped the film back from being a perfect film, he's a good actor, but doesn't have the charisma to make Mark likable and talked way too fast for average movie goers to understand half of what's going on. That does damage in reviews, because if people understood it, they automatically mark that as they are intelligent, not to go onto that rant, but just a pet peeve of mine. I read The Accidental Billionaires and Mark seems like a very nice guy who wanted to create something very good and seems like a pleasure to meet in real life. Jesse plays him off too much as a shy nerdy jerk who's just too greedy at times. Justin Timberlake playing Sean Parker, he's good enough, he seems to really enjoy playing what I would assume Sean to be like since he almost took down the music industry in the 90's. Justin plays him cool and really proved to that he can both talents in the music and acting industry.
Is The Social Network the best film of 2010? Depends on your taste, my favorite contender is still The Black Swan. However, this film does deserve it's praise mainly for David Finch and his vision. His fast pace with the film was what kept it going and his passion for the story was what really grabbed me. Though I know not to take this for a biography, I don't see why they couldn't stay a little more true to the story, though from what I understand, Mark is a very private manironic. I would recommend The Social Network, it will be apart of film history to describe our era in computers, however, I don't think it's our generation's defining film as many have described. Just don't believe the hype, I found it good just to watch it once.
7/10