The Social Network has opened in the States to great fanfare, pulling in $23m in its first weekend and hitting the number one box office spot. It’s been compared, in bombastic media soundbytes, to Goodfellas and The Godfather (“If Coppola were into computers, this would be The Godfather”), and has racked up ridiculous ratings on sites like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, scoring higher than ET, Taxi Driver, and the original Star Wars movie.
To say this sounds a little overblown is an understatement. The Social Network trailer looks good, but it also looks like it could have moments of Hollywood schlock, as hinted by the meant-to-be-poignant children’s choir in the trailer soundtrack. Can it really be as good as everyone says it is?
But maybe The Social Network, as the unofficial, no holds barred story of Mark Zuckerberg is the story that should define this generation; the story of Facebook has sounded like a Hollywood plot line from the get go after all. Zuckerberg holds enormous power, but is simultaneously publicity shy, and yet he has control of, arguably, too much information on all of us. This is a man we all need to know more about.
Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue has been praised to high heaven, and Mark Zuckerberg comes out of the film looking positively unlikeable. Could The Social Network be as good as the consensus is saying?
US readers, drop us a line in the comments and tell us what you made of the film. UK bods, click and tell…
I must say, despite being a hardened cynic, i'm going to see it, largely to see what all the fuss is about. However, I do despise triumph over adversity themes, so I hope there's none of that. Have any of our US readers seen it yet? What's the verdict?
The Social Network has opened in the States to great fanfare, pulling in $23m in its first weekend and hitting the number one box office spot. It’s been compared, in bombastic media soundbytes, to Goodfellas and The Godfather (“If Coppola were into computers, this would be The Godfather”), and has racked up ridiculous ratings on sites like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, scoring higher than ET, Taxi Driver, and the original Star Wars movie.
