Facebook Should Invent 'Adore' Button For Early Reviews of The Social Network

Until recently, the big question about David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's takedown biopic about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was whether it could live up to maybe the best trailer of the year. Now the film has finally screened and... forget the trailer! Can the film live up to this much critical hyperbole?

It started over a week ago with an enthusiastic four star tweet from Peter Travers. Now, online critics are joining him in what's becoming a total love fest with Oscar proclamations abound.

Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells flew from Toronto to New York and back just to catch the screening, but it sounds like it was worth it:

It's only mid-September but The Social Network, a story of hard 21st Century hunger for the hot thing and more-more-more, feels to me like the absolute sh*t. I'm not able to figure how it isn't really and truly at the top of the pack now. A movie might come along that'll beat The Social Network, but I can't imagine right now what that film might be, and I know whereof I speak.

Then more awards predictions from Aint it Cool News' Quint:

Fincher himself is in top form, pulling great performances from every actor, telling the story in a quick way, keeping thing lively and entertaining without losing any of the emotional impact. After 5 minutes I felt like I was on the periphery of this story, hanging out as the story was unfolding. It drew me in...What else can I say? I loved this movie and I think it officially kicks off the 2010 Oscar race.

Okay, great. But what exactly does everybody like about it? <a href="http://www.collider.com/2010/09/13/the-social-network-movie-review-video-blog/

">Collider's Steve Weintraub breaks it down:

Jesse Eisenberg

Eisenberg's performance in The Social Network is on another level.

Justin Timberlake/Andrew Garfield

The Social Network proves two things: Justin Timberlake is great at whatever he does, and Andrew Garfield might turn out to be a pretty awesome Peter Parker.

The Editing

While some filmmakers might struggle to tell a story filled with lawyers, students, lawsuits and love...this is a David Fincher film, and everything production-wise is top notch across the board. While I haven't seen every film released this year, so far the best editing has to go to Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World with The Social Network not far behind.

Aaron Sorkin's Script

Holy sh*t it's great.

David Fincher's Direction

Brilliant. Amazing. Perfect.

It goes on, with raves from Hitfix, CHUD, and Cinemablend. So the biggest criticism so far is that the editing is only almost as good as Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World!

The only negativity came from Cinematical's Erik Davis, who felt a bit distanced from the characters and also disenchanted with the entire generation it represents. But then he still calls it "one of the must-see films of the year":

As with Facebook itself, you'll have fun observing The Social Network and all its moving parts, but it's very difficult to truly connect with -- or care much about -- its characters. Like that distant cousin three states over, or your old high school friends, you're interested in how their lives are playing out, but you follow them on Facebook so that you never actually have to interact with them ... outside of Facebook. The Social Network will define a generation for a generation that couldn't care less about its generation, but it's as entertaining as anything you'll watch all year.

So there you have it. Looks like this one is the real deal. We'll see what happens when print critics start weighing in closer to the film's New York Film Festival premiere and Oct. 1 release date.