This movie is two hours of Mark Zuckerberg being an asshole.  The viewer should be able to feel some sort of compassion for the protagonist of a film, and character flaws, such as his “assholery” should represent some deep-seeded flaw or conflict that the character is trying to make up for.  That is, if such a relatable inner conflict exists.

Mark Zuckerberg steals the idea from facebook from a couple other students, who row crew, in an attempt to make himself feel better about his recent break-up, during which, his (ex)girlfriend stated she “had a thing” for guys who row crew.  He convinces his best friend to join him in his venture, mainly because he needs money.  He turns around by, supposedly, falsely planting a story in The Crimson (Harvard newspaper) about his roommate abusing an animal.  He does this out of jealousy from his friends’ acceptance into a Final Club, which at the beginning of the film, is shown to be Zuckerberg’s one wish in college.

A horribly undeveloped subplot of the movie is Zuckerberg’s failed relationship with a Boston University girl.  This is never fully developed, and it left me with a sense of unease.  Right after his break-up, in a drunken fit, Zuckerberg blogs many terrible things about the girl, knowing full well she would read them.  Then when facebook starts taking off like wildfire, he makes sure there is a story in the Boston University newspaper, a final “fuck you” to the girl he loved, as if to say, “look how good I am without you.”

Zuckerberg made his money from being good and being an asshole.  I usually appreciate people who do what they have to do in order to succeed, but Zuckerberg seriously overdid it.

All that being said: great script, great actors, great director, but there just wasn’t a movie worthy story here.  I have a lot of respect for Jesse Eisenberg (See: The Education of Charlie Banks, The Squid and the Whale) and David Fincher (Fight Club), so it’s a shame for both of them to have their names attached to this.

C+ (and that is being generous)

This is the perfect way to describe the shit I saw this morning.

I’ve been hearing for weeks about the strength of script. I heard it being compared to the likes of Citzen Kane and Fight Club.

This of course got me really excited. Being a lover of a strong script first… and everything else second.

Upon the rolling of the credits… it was all a lie.

Aaron Sorkin’s script was witty, smart… and just plain well done. Don’t get me wrong. But the film, like the book it’s made off of seems VERY one sided and mean spirited… like a Michael Moore movie. Everyone is so shalow and one dimensional. But I don’t know if that’s the acting or the writing doing that? Maybe a little of both? Too many characters and not enough good dialogue to go around.

As far as direction goes. I loved almost every shot. Dave Fincher did the best with what he had. Too bad it wasn’t much.

This continues to show how bad a year 2010 has been for Hollywood that this is the best people flock to. Enough sequels and Dreamworks is making more enjoyable animated films than Pixar lately, I’m sorry.

I’m gonna cut it short today… *sigh* I just don’t like totally one sided movies. It just seems snarky and petty.

But then again… a lot of the people who saw this movie also play “Farmvile” and “Mafia Wars”… so I wouldn’t expect anyone with an actual IQ to actually love this movie to death. When Oscar season fires into high gear next month, you’ll see some movies really worth your time.

D+