Simply put, this movie is going to rub people the wrong way. Not necessarily by it's sleek production value, like the clever floating text bubbles of social media that permeates certain scenes, or the beautiful location settings. While this is really nice to look at visually, the movie is really more focused on being a cautionary tale and a social commentary about human surveillance and privacy. How it goes about doing that is what will antagonize the audience, because it's message feels almost like it's directly criticizing anybody that has embraced the modern tech in an almost one-sided way. Isn't that most of us though?
This really felt like a propaganda movie that is very heavy handed in it's point of view, and I would have liked a bit more subtlety. I admit there were plot points that would suggest that it's not completely biased in favor of one perspective, but it's hard not to think it is anyway. I'll give it some credit for being ambitious with it's big ideas, and I actually do appreciate the concepts that this movie is trying to relay to us, but it still felt like a rather undercooked story. I would liked to have just suspended by disbelief and just go with it, but it was really hard to do so with this movie's plot conveniences, logical flaws, as well as it's biggest problem; the characters.
A lot of the characters in this movie simply do not act like they are real human beings. There were simply some unbelievably ridiculous things that "The Circlers" would say and do, that I was utterly gobsmacked into thinking that the filmmakers can't possibly be serious into believing that this is what the so called enlightened people of the tech industry would act in real life. I also noticed that the Circlers were predominantly people in their 20s too, which makes me also question if this is how they believe Millennials act.
It also doesn't help that Emma Watson was just simply average in her role, or that her character just wasn't as interesting as this movie thinks she is. All the other supporting characters were also just passable and unfortunately underdeveloped; which includes the roles played by Tom Hanks, Patton Oswalt, John Boyega, and Karen Gillan. I will however say that I did like the characters that Bill Paxton and Glenne Headly played, so there's that at least.
loveditenjoyedititsokay IT'S MEH itsterrible
