The Social Network – a Movie Review
A Review of "The Social Network" Movie
Making a website for 500 million people to link up and stay in touch cost the founder many of his closest friends even is it made him a billionaire. The trailer and movie poster for "The Social Network" made that clear. But what about the movie itself?
The Social Network trailer clearly shows the ideas that led to the creation of Facebook and rise of success with an initial starts of the lawsuits. What isn’t made clear from the Social Network trailer is how the details behind the lawsuit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg are based on as much his personality and drive to make his dream a reality as they are from young inventors not knowing how to balance the needs of the team against growing the dream.
The effort of friends to turn a great idea into an international phenomena results in several key friendships falling apart. This is especially true when the rounds of angel investor funding start rolling in, allowing a rapid rate of expansion for kids who dropped out of college to create Facebook.
The Social Network trailer shows the evolution of Facebook as an effort to get back at a girl after being dumped. The movie itself shows the technical efforts of how he created the first sight and how he decided to add other technical features to his website, like the relationship status menu to enhance Facebook’s appeal to those seeking dates.
The role of Napster co-founder Sean Parker is explained in the movie, from a “hey that’s cool” look at a lover’s computer screen to a 5% stakeholder in Facebook when it went public. The funniest moment in the is not fully revealed in the Social Network trailer, when co-founder of Facebook Eduardo Saverin’s girlfriend gets angry that his Facebook profile says “single”, and she sets various gifts on fire because she doesn’t believe he doesn’t know how to change his relationship status.
My Rating for "The Social Network"
I recommend this movie as an insight to the inventive process and the personal impact of putting business ahead of relationships.
I especially enjoy the fact that the nerdy kid from Zombieland gets his first major drama role in "The Social Network".
I give this movie four stars out of five.
The Social Network Vs Catfish
"The Social Network" can be seen as the history of the rise of Facebook. "Catfish" is more of a documentary on the early use of the social network; the reality show based on the movie "Catfish" should be taken with more than a grain of salt as to how realistic it is.
