The critic’s ratings for “The Social Network” were the highest for any movie thus far in 2010. This was based on reviews by 40 major critics who rated the film an average of 97 out of 100. WOW, since this is our area of expertise, this has to be a MUST-SEE movie for us.

We decided NOT to go to the premiere night, thinking there would be a mass of social media crazies waiting in line. I had visions of the last “Star Trek” movie and the huge crowd of “Trekkies” waiting for that one to start – no thanks.

So instead, we went the next night, and decided to attend the earlier 6:30pm showing, thinking the lines would be less of an obstacle. What we found was a surprise. We parked in the front row (okay, we arrived 25 minutes before the start of the movie), there was no line, we walked right in (we had even pre-purchased our tickets online in preparation for the crowd), we got our popcorn and soda, and headed to the room where our movie was playing. There were maybe 10 – 20 people in the theater so we had our choice of prime seats. By the time the movie started, the theater was still only about half full.

Susi and I both thought the movie was excellent. I occasionally (okay, usually) nap once or twice during movies unless they completely hold my attention. This one did. The basic story is about a college student who develops “The Facebook”, a social network that allows college students to share information and communicate with each other. The big question in the movie is whether he steals the idea from two other students who asked him to help them develop a similar site. I thought the acting was very good. Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg, a narcissistic and arrogant Harvard sophomore (and genius, by the way) who wanted to be “accepted” by the school’s elite. Eisenberg used just enough “eccentricity” in his character to be believable.

I was also pleasantly surprised at Justin Timberlake’s acting skills (although I don’t particularly like his musical stylings). Timberlake played Sean Parker, the founder of Napster and a real go-getter. Some would say he was “full of old flannel” (the English saying for full of crap). He was a mentor to Zuckerberg in the early days of Facebook before going on to become president of the company after conspiring to oust (some would say) Zuckerberg’s partner Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garvin), who ended up suing Zuckerberg for an undisclosed amount of cash (and winning). Timberlake portrays Parker surprisingly well, at least in my opinion.

The movie was very entertaining and informative (although I believe there was some “artistic license” taken with the story’s characters to make it more engrossing). We all root for the underdog and Jesse Eisenberg (Zuckerberg) played this to the hilt. His intelligent and witty-yet-sarcastic repartee with the attorney was very funny and you actually felt good when he got in an appropriate “zinger”.

I know the critics rated this movie right up there with The Wrestler, The Hurt Locker, The Incredibles, Sideways, and Finding Nemo, but that may very well be because social media is so prevalent in today’s society. No matter how high The Social Network review scores are, the bottom line is that just like with social networking, it’s ultimately up to the people, not the critics. Time will tell.