I must say, right off the bat...A decent thriller, but an obvious propaganda film...
As far as the movie itself (storyline, action, character development, etc.) is concerned, it was fair...about a 2.5/5 stars.
But on the message end ( yes, yet, another movie which does not seek to merely entertain, but to ’’teach’’), it reeks of Mac/Linux/’’Insert-any-open-source-guerilla’’ tactics.
Plot:
’’Mannequin Man’’ Philippe is a hacker/programmer who is wooed into working for Gary Winston (a thinly-veiled (OK, there is no veil) Bill Gates. Well, ’ol Bill, as he is obviously wont to do, has Philippe’s best programmer friend killed. This leads to a search for truth...
The Good:
There are some tense moments in the movie, most notably when Philippe is in the daycare hacking a computer. Tim Robbins is great, as always, and fits his character perfectly.
The Bad:
The message hits you like a ton of bricks...
It’s not that the open-source debate should not go on; in fact, in many ways I agree with the premise and motivations of pro-open-source followers, but the movie came off as a very heavy-handed in it’s approach to the issue. No debating, just bashing of anyone not making their code free for anyone.
One line spoke of how information should ’’be free to everyone...like Shakespeare and aspirin.’’ I understand the implication, but it comes off as naive. Shakespeare made money off his scripts. His books have to be bought and paid for, at Amazon. Movie theaters certainly don’t let you in for free, regardless whether MacBeth or AntiTrust is playing. And, when is the last time aspirin was given out by Bayer?
The Bill Gates analogies also came off a bit extreme. He may be cutthroat in his business practices, but by painting him as Satan incarnate, the creators looked more envious and bitter than anything.
If the creators had just made a cyber thriller, I would have enjoyed it more. But the fact that the underlying message is so blantant, it becomes clear that some plot twists were placed to accomodate the message.
Overall:
If it had stayed focused on ’’thrilling, ’’ rather than preaching, it would have been more effective.
I have grown so tired of propaganda films coming out of Hollywood, under the guise of entertainment.