Not a Seminal Work of the 21st Century
Nov. 4th, 2010 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaDue to a lot of circumstances, I went to see The Social Network last night, while with a head cold, a heavy heart and weary bones which I will tell you about at a later date.
I didn't listen to the hype, or tried not to, and went to see it because of the reason I generally go see movies in which I don't know any of the actors (other than Justin Timberlake, who a real turn off for me, I find him so unappealing as a persona) is the director.
David Fincher, he who did Fight Club, which was a work of sheer brilliance and in a funny way almost an antithesis to The Social Network when you think about it.
In any event, my reaction to the film was "Excellent script, awesome music, okay movie".
The script, by one Aaron Sorkin is possibly the saviour of this movie and could get the Oscar nod, because like all of his writing, it is witty, fast, funny and entrenched with double-triple meaning and force - the words are very much the driving force of the movie - with good reason, as the movie is about a bunch of boys writing code - think Hackers only without the 80's get up and nefarious 80's greed.
Start-Up Greed is the protagonists right, don't you know.
A bunch of boys writing code, making money and getting (or trying to get) laid. Can't say I've never seen it before, but because it's a biopic and based on a True Story and all that, it is supposed to give it an extra edge. Maybe.
I wasn't moved by the film, as I've read others who were. It was funny in parts, the music - as I said - was awesome, but hey when you've got Trent Reznor on board it can't be all that bad.
I wasn't moved because I felt absolutely no sympathy, empathy or one iota of identification with any of the main characters. No one. Certainly not Zuckerberg who, as portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg has one expression to his name... apathy (and skeeviness, yikes).
Total and utter apathy and I must say that's the feeling one get throughout the movie he simply does not care about anything, other than showing his superiority over anyone and everyone, something I would normally be all for, because I myself am a pretty condescending ass-hole when I want to be (or inadvertently) but as a characteristic of the main character I was less than moved, not to mention that he was just boring to watch.
(I was also less than impressed with the fact that we were supposed to sympathise with him at all, especially at the end, when he's shown to be "just another lonely nerd holding on the girl who got away". No, it's creepy)
I haven't seen Zombieland but was told by my friend, with whom I went to see the film and had seen Zombieland that Eisenberg had pretty much the same expression and inflection here as he did there.
I'm not impressed.
Andrew Garfield was by far the most entertaining, also the most sympathetic character, which isn't saying much really. I got the feeling that Eduardo Saverin was no less of an ass-hole than Zuckerberg, but simply had better face-to-face people skills.
The less said about Sean Parker the better. Seriously?
I'll conclude by saying that this movie is much ado about nothing. I went to see it because it does encapsulate a part of culture in which I am entrenched, but the story it tells is a boring one. The hype is about the subject matter, the execution was not bad, but I've seen much better movies when it comes to this type of drama. I've also seen much much worse, but really now? Oscar buzz? As I said, maybe for the script, the editing, the technical stuff etc, because those really were good and they really do save the film.
As the performances were pretty much... meh.
As a piece of fiction it was derivative, as a piece of social commentary it falls flat and as for its quality of entertainment... I might download the soundtrack.
Thanks Sean!
I didn't listen to the hype, or tried not to, and went to see it because of the reason I generally go see movies in which I don't know any of the actors (other than Justin Timberlake, who a real turn off for me, I find him so unappealing as a persona) is the director.
David Fincher, he who did Fight Club, which was a work of sheer brilliance and in a funny way almost an antithesis to The Social Network when you think about it.
In any event, my reaction to the film was "Excellent script, awesome music, okay movie".
The script, by one Aaron Sorkin is possibly the saviour of this movie and could get the Oscar nod, because like all of his writing, it is witty, fast, funny and entrenched with double-triple meaning and force - the words are very much the driving force of the movie - with good reason, as the movie is about a bunch of boys writing code - think Hackers only without the 80's get up and nefarious 80's greed.
Start-Up Greed is the protagonists right, don't you know.
A bunch of boys writing code, making money and getting (or trying to get) laid. Can't say I've never seen it before, but because it's a biopic and based on a True Story and all that, it is supposed to give it an extra edge. Maybe.
I wasn't moved by the film, as I've read others who were. It was funny in parts, the music - as I said - was awesome, but hey when you've got Trent Reznor on board it can't be all that bad.
I wasn't moved because I felt absolutely no sympathy, empathy or one iota of identification with any of the main characters. No one. Certainly not Zuckerberg who, as portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg has one expression to his name... apathy (and skeeviness, yikes).
Total and utter apathy and I must say that's the feeling one get throughout the movie he simply does not care about anything, other than showing his superiority over anyone and everyone, something I would normally be all for, because I myself am a pretty condescending ass-hole when I want to be (or inadvertently) but as a characteristic of the main character I was less than moved, not to mention that he was just boring to watch.
(I was also less than impressed with the fact that we were supposed to sympathise with him at all, especially at the end, when he's shown to be "just another lonely nerd holding on the girl who got away". No, it's creepy)
I haven't seen Zombieland but was told by my friend, with whom I went to see the film and had seen Zombieland that Eisenberg had pretty much the same expression and inflection here as he did there.
I'm not impressed.
Andrew Garfield was by far the most entertaining, also the most sympathetic character, which isn't saying much really. I got the feeling that Eduardo Saverin was no less of an ass-hole than Zuckerberg, but simply had better face-to-face people skills.
The less said about Sean Parker the better. Seriously?
I'll conclude by saying that this movie is much ado about nothing. I went to see it because it does encapsulate a part of culture in which I am entrenched, but the story it tells is a boring one. The hype is about the subject matter, the execution was not bad, but I've seen much better movies when it comes to this type of drama. I've also seen much much worse, but really now? Oscar buzz? As I said, maybe for the script, the editing, the technical stuff etc, because those really were good and they really do save the film.
As the performances were pretty much... meh.
As a piece of fiction it was derivative, as a piece of social commentary it falls flat and as for its quality of entertainment... I might download the soundtrack.
Thanks Sean!
