I had the chance to see the movie “The Social Network” yesterday, I must say I enjoyed the experience. When the movie ended, I felt like it was too short, but when I looked at my watch, little did I know 2 hours had already passed. That’s usually a good sign that what I had just seen was very enjoyable. Here are my thoughts on the film.

A modern Pirate of Silicon Valley

When I first saw the trailer, I couldn’t help but think about Martin Burke’s 1999 movie Pirates of Silicon Valley that tells the story of Apple & Microsoft’s beginnings and how Jobs and Gates kind of became enemies despite not necessarily having the same business objectives. “The Social Network” contains about the same amount of drama and both stories converge at certain points, but both are somehow very different from one another on many things. Still, this is a modern day Silicon Valley tale that every geek should see.

For starters, the cast is great. Jesse Eisenberg does a great job impersonating the enigmatic Mark Zuckerberg; I don’t know him personally, but from what I’ve seen and read about the man, I would say he comes pretty close or at least he matches how I see him. You really get the sense that a lot of work has been put into making sure the main character is done right. Andrew Garfield also does a nice job playing his business partner and Justin Timberlake adds a lot to the fun playing the wild card founder of Napster, Sean Parker.

The story is well crafted, the narration is told from a law dispute’s point of view, where Mark & his lawyer are being asked questions as to how things all evolved in order to find who the sole creator of the site is. It’s kind of nice they chose to unveil the tale this way because it ads a lot to the drama; but that’s the kind of stuff you’d expect from the director of Fight Club and Se7en.

Leave it in the oven

The one thing that truly bothered me, and this is a common comment I’ve read from many movie critics, is that the story is just too young. This is a movie, in my opinion, that should have been released in a few more years, if not a decade. Facebook is a company that is barely 6 years old and has yet to prove its profitability and the true impact it will have on our society. In essence, there is no proper ending to it yet. I was pretty happy to see they’ve put lots of emphasis on the revenue question, as Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) puts it: “we have to find a way to monetize the site”. That question still remains, despite the company being valued at over 25G$.

This is where I think Pirates of Silicon Valley truly is a better movie; at the time when the script was written, Apple & Microsoft were already over 20 years old. They had already proven their business models to be very, very durable and their impact on the industry had already been well defined. All that was left was to take some time to reflect about it. Facebook has changed many things, but its true formula for success has yet to be found. We don’t know what Facebook will look like in a few years: will it be bigger or if will only be a mere souvenir in techno-pop culture like IRC? I doubt the second option will occur, but you get the point.

Growing up fast

Despite what I’ve mentioned in my second paragraph, The Social Network is a story about how some of our harsh human nature traits come crashing with one’s determination to succeed: greed, envy and jealousy. The debate on who invented the website, the fight for power between Sean & Eduardo, the geek who has problems dealing with ladies, fraternities, fear of rejection, The Social Network’s plot surrounds the difficulties a brilliant person has to deal with in society.

While Mark may have a hard time dealing with the fact a movie has been made in his name, I’m sure The Social Network can only help all of us shed some light on this intriguing character, who’s creation is a paradox with respect to his personality. The movie can only give him a boost to pursue his promising career.