I'll probably catch **** for this but you talk about boring, just go watch the Hurt Locker. There was no arc to the film at all. While there was good acting it was really dull for the most part.
There is an arc, it's just very internal and thus, subtle. He goes from someone who's unaware of his addiction to and love of warfare to someone who is not only aware of it, but embraces it. It's a Disillusionment Plot, in which is attitude toward life is positive at the beginning (he thinks he's a competent, effective military professional) and ends in a negative view of his life (that he's a hopeless adrenaline junkie who doesn't care about anyone but himself).
His need for adrenaline is what drives him to do anything in that movie, and when he sees that addiction for what it is, and is given a chance to change, he chooses not to, instead to wallow in it. It's pretty good. It's just that in film, internal arcs like this are very subtle and can be missed, particularly if it's merged with a more bombastic, physical setting like the war genre. In a novel, this is much easier to do, while the reverse, physical kinesis, is much harder to do.
The Winklevi rowing sequence was the best part.
I really liked that part. I liked how it was shot with a tilt-shift (which is why the depth of field and focus is so tight and blurring outside) which makes everything look like a miniature. They did this throughout the film, I suppose to make everyone look more petty and emphasise how everyone is rather tunnel-focused on their desire to the exclusion of everything else.
Fincher's best film since Zodiac (****, this guy is good, isn't he?).
He really is. His second film was SEVEN, dammit. That movie is one of the most important movies to come out in the 1990s and is a masterpiece. And then we got THE GAME, FIGHT CLUB, PANIC ROOM, ZODIAC, okay, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON was apparently stupid, but THE SOCIAL NETWORK is back on form.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK is a lot like THE HURT LOCKER, and the two are a reverse of UP IN THE AIR (which is a wonderful film by the way) in which the internal character arcs from obliviousness to self-awareness. In UP IN THE AIR Clooney arcs from living a shallow, meaningless life but thinking his life is full of meaning, to a man with a shallow, meaningless life, but aware that his life is shallow and meaningless, creating an education plot. THE SOCIAL NETWORK and THE HURT LOCKER are both the reverse, Disillusionment plots which have really morally corrupt protagonists who think they're wonderful, and at the end, they're still morally repellent people, but they're aware of it and incapable (as in NETWORK) or unwilling (as in LOCKER) to change.
I think the final image of the movie; Mark Zuckerberg constantly hitting refresh in the hopes of gaining a friend, is rather perfect. It's definitely a meaning that the Academy Award
loves, so it'll probably be nominated if nothing else.
I think Jesse Eisenberg did a great job in drawing empathy despite being a total bastard from the first scene (which is impressive), Justin Timberlake was annoying in the right way, the guy who played the twins was stellar and very sympathetic, but I think my heart strings went mostly for Andrew Garfield who was superb. He will be a brilliant Spidey.