I have moved to www.trafotoz.com

July 03, 2017

The Circle: Who's Watching Who?

This film doesn't really do much in terms of a movie but it does on the other hand prove that just because you have a great cast, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll have a great movie.

The fact that it got hardly any screen time yet stars like Tom Hanks, John Boyega and Emma Watson appear in it is unusual.

Mae Holland [Emma Watson] lands an interview with The Circle thanks to her friend Annie [Karen Gillan]. She obviously aces the interview and ends up working for the world’s most powerful internet company. The Circle uses the concepts from Google, Apple, Twitter, Facebook and also touches on a new level of Vlogging and Blogging to create an eerily accurate picture of what our future may look like.


The idea is that their customers buy into The Circle with their TruYou identity which grants them access to a variety of social connections conceivable in our digital universe. This then results in everyone knowing what everyone is doing, who they're with including their health...because that's not a major breach of privacy right there.

So Mae, as one does, goes 'Transparent' and carries around a very small camera with her which is attached to her shirt. So this means that billions of people can see what she is doing 24/7...minus the bathroom, etc. - thank god.

So Bailey [Tom Hanks] and Stenton [Patton Oswalt] are the leaders and set-up cameras everywhere in the world to catch and find missing people and criminals within 20 minutes. Now whilst this concept is pretty darn cool and could make you feel safer, you can see where you could draw the line between this and invasion of privacy.

This is clearly shown when Mae's only 'non-Circle' friend gets followed by drones and people chasing him in cars, streaming him live to billions of people globally. The friend Mercer [Ellar Coltrane] is the only realistic character that we can actually relate to which brings this film back down to reality and somewhat good. The consequences of this tech-obsessed world then comes to a halt when a tragic event happens, but this doesn't last long.

Emma and Tom (when given the right role) are fine actors/actresses, in fact, two of my favourite, yet in this they are both  incredibly monotone, boring and just unbearable to actually watch. So trying to comment on Tom's acting is pretty hard when you don't have much to go on, the same applies to John. Emma on the other hand is good, but not great. Her accent is bearable at times but its not perfect. At the end of the day they could have casted ANYONE to play the role...like an actual American.

From the trailer, I expected Ty [John Boyega] to have a major role where he would exposed the company and show Mae what The Circle was really like. Then queue Bailey who tries to stop them and gets exposed and BOOM - there's your film...mehhh not so much. But I won't spoil it for you.

It's kind of like advertising a 2-hour movie, but then making Tom and John the two main actors and giving them about 5-10 minutes of screen time COMBINED - oh wait...

Overall this movie was pretty rubbish BUT does have a fab plot/idea that could have been amazing if done right (not that I'm an expert). But, if you have a pre-order you may as well cancel it as many did and wait to see if for free as it is on Netflix. So to the question of who's watching who...according to this movie its they're watching YOU...just maybe you might not want to waste your time watching them. However, I do encourage you to watch it and form you own opinion. Watch the trailer HERE.

Rating: 3/5
Running Time: 1hr 49 minutes
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Suspense

SHARE:

24 comments

  1. It was an interesting concept but kinda boring. It would be a good Netflix movie if you are bored on a Sunday afternoon but I wouldn't make an effort to see it. Great review!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed - very good idea. Such a shame it was such a bad film, could have had great potential.

      Delete
  2. Hey, I Love your blog I nominated you for the Blogger recognition award, have a look here https://melanatedbutterfly.com/blogger-recognition-award/ continue to do amazing work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! I have done the post too :D

      Delete
  3. Not gonna watch it 😂😂

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wise! :D Perhaps a good movie if you are bored!

      Delete
  4. I have not seen this.... great review, I'll probably skip it :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wise! :D Perhaps a good movie if you are bored as it does have a really good plot/idea!

      Delete
  5. I was a bit interested in this when I first saw the trailer but I'm glad I saw your review. I'm still interested enough to catch it on Netflix if it is ever added maybe but I won't be paying to see it. Thank you for your honest review

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely watch it for sure - I love the plot line just such a shame as it could have been better and more suspenseful. I do always keep them honest - thank you :D

      Delete
  6. Great review. I really like your style

    ReplyDelete
  7. I loved the concept of the film but I thought Tom Hanks could have been in it a lot more. To me I didn't think it was a bad film, I just think they could've fleshed out the concepts a lot better.

    Julia // The Sunday Mode

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed - absolutely love Hanks! And yes, great concepts that could have been explored more in depth! Definitely think I will watch it again now knowing what happened and seeing how I feel about it.

      Delete
  8. I watched this because I wanted to see what Karen Gillans acting was like in a different role to Doctor Who. The high profile actors really pulled me in, along with the story, but i agree with you i feel as though the impact of the film was lost through the quite rushed pace of it all - no suspense/creepiness and not much build up really. Its a shame though as it seemed like it'd be great.

    Quirks and Queries

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed - well said. Loved Karen on Doctor Who and you would think with the starring cast it would have made it to cinema but now I see why.

      Delete
  9. Hi, great review. It sounds like a good idea for a movie but after reading your review I think I will give it a miss.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I really do hope a similar film comes along soon!

      Delete
  10. :-) that's a close one there you saved a lot of our precious time there awesome review now I know what not to watch

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just did a post on what TO watch, this as you could imagine didn't make the list :D Thank you :)

      Delete
  11. Have not seen it as yet. Love your review though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you :) You could watch it and always keep an open mind. After all, you might love it. Let me know what you think if you decide to

      Delete
  12. I've been wanting to watch this online! Great review, glad I didn't see it in the theater!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you- the end result explains why it didn't have a big premiere or screen time here in the UK too.

      Delete

All content copyright © 2014 - 2017 Trafotoz, unless otherwise noted. Template: pipdig