As a one of the first one million people to join The Facebook, I have to say I was pretty skeptical ofThe Social Network. Really, who wants to see a movie about the making of Facebook? Do people really care? Does this mean Hollywood is making a movie about Napster…I digress.
Mark Zuckerberg has been my generation’s hero — the guy who flipped off corporate America to build a company that ran his way. Not only were we obsessed with logging onto Facebook every chance we could get, but now my generation didn’t look like a bunch of lazy geniuses. We had Mark Zuckerberg and his herd of cool kids changing the way people interact with the Internet. Little did many of know that Mark wasn’t so ‘cool’ back in his days at Havard.
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The Social Network isn’t just a movie about the creation of Facebook, it’s about a socially inept computer nerd from Harvard who wanted social status without having to give up his brash attitude or the genius within. Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg, is the king of nerds. And you don’t mess with nerds. The audience finds out early on that Mark does not take rejection well, and his way of dealing with it usually involves openly blogging about his enemies and, like any nerd, attacks his problems like a math formula. Jesse Eisenberg swiftly takes on his role spitting out lines about bits, ram, php, script codes and algorithms like he’s been coding programs his whole life.
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Enter Mark’s only friend at college Eduardo Saverin, played by newbie hottie Andrew Garfield — you’ll see him as the new Spider-Man in a few years. This suave business man spends his time supporting his BFF Mark and providing the funding for The Facebook’s initial launch. That is until Eduardo takes his former best friend to court. Between being sued by Eduardo and another group of business partners from Harvard, The Social Network follows Mark’s journey to becoming the most talked about 20-something in America. From Harvard to Palo Alto, The Facebook’s team of programmers go on a whirlwind trip full of everything they never had: popularity, women, drugs and sex.
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Of course, a lot of the drug scenes belong to Sean Parker, played by Justin Timberlake. That’s one hell of an upgrade for the founder of Napster, I must say. Sean Parker is portrayed as a party animal with sociopath tendencies and who may be suffering from paranoia. But, Sean looks great the whole time with Justin Timberlake playing the role — JT does a great job playing a rockstar in a world of programmers, not that it’s hard.
Mark may have lost his battles in court and ended up paying off those involved, but The Social Network leaves you wondering: Team Mark or Team Eduardo? And did Mark really create The Facebook or did he steal the idea? Whatever your side on the matter, you still can’t deny the significant presence of Facebook in our daily lives. Wait for that final scene in The Social Network and ask yourself: what would life be without Facebook?
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