I qualify this as always by understanding that making films in general
is a difficult and arduous process, a thankless task in which your efforts are often slated, but regardless of this my reviews attempt to offer the “intelligent viewer” a reason to watch … or not … the film in question.

Quick summary :

Quality definitely above the “made for TV” type stuff. To much borrowed
plot and Hollywood propaganda, basically if you take the plot of seven,
remove the religious motive subtract 4 of the killings , and place the
activity on the web, you’ve got this film, it also in some senses,
could be said to borrow from “SAW” type films, with its egg timer
torture type motif. A film probably funded by the media giants, as propoganda to form the publics opinion that web distribution of media is somehow dangerous and wrong.

propaganda issues in this film :

This film is riddled with Hollywood anti piracy propaganda, there’s even
parts of the film in which they portray the idea of “net neutrality”,
as something evil, that only gun toting weirdo’s are into, no doubt
something that was being debated in congress at the time ? it attempts to propogate the myth that any download sites actual purpose, is to harvest your bank login details and rip you off. This film is Hollywood attempting to use the medium of cinema, to mould your viewpoint on some serious net issues in which it has big interests.

One of the more simple points of propaganda, is when they bust an evil
net user, they sling a recorded DVD into a player and quip how his
copied DVD still has an FBI anti piracy warning on it, and he cant say
he didn’t read it. this scene was so jarring ill reserached and deliberately
placed in here, as to be hysterically poor. Weak, weak for a a small
moment i thought the whole film was nought more, than a spoof vehicle
deliberately made so Hollywood could lecture on anti piracy.

One of the underlying threads this film is pushing, is that the net is
dangerous, and needs to be controlled for our own safety, otherwise
terrible things will happen. but considering Americans believe guns are
safe in and of themselves, and its only people that are dangerous, the
same could be said for the net in general.

nearly every intelligent computer surfing geek in this film except the
ones who work for the saintly government agency’s, are portrayed here as
subordinate in comparison, to the classic good guy agency types, the
stereotypical “cops are hero’s routine” is in play without question, if your
persuaded by this tall tail that all law enforcement are somehow
uniformly angelic, just do a search for stark country arrest video, and
realise this film is a twee fantasy in comparison to the goings on, of
the real world.

Licence taking :

This film takes huge licence with technical accuracy, what this hacker
is able to do in real-time is unrealistic, at some points in this film
he is streaming video to 4 million viewers at once from a server whose
location is not fully understood, that volume of traffic is very
noticeable, and easily terminate-able. Agency’s who wish to make
popular videos very difficult to find or access … can, just getting rid
of all possible sources of a video is very difficult, but they can
certainly make it so only the very determined can find it.

It also take huge liberty’s with promoting the idea that everything you
do on the net is transparent to every agency, all your passwords as a
user are somehow instantly hackable by a government agency, the only
way it would be possible for these agency’s to have this information
this quickly without paperwork or request procedure, is in a scenario
in which all supposedly secure information you supply to websites, is
somehow instantly delivered into the hands of agency’s without
question. Which I’m sure is a scenario all agency’s would love to
achieve, real time gestapo style spying on the entire population, but
believe this morsel of propaganda and you would believe that net
neutrality and privacy were already sunk, as things worth fighting for,
in a way this films really evil propaganda is to misinform you the net
liberty fight is already over.

Moral issues :

The strange thing is, this film portrays how its “net users” who are
responsible for the sick content on the web and that they are evil and
must be stopped, In a way this entire film is nought more than a way of
Hollywood cashing in, itself on the idea of sick content ? and
hollywoods morality here is totally in question, in the sense that
Hollywood is far superior at producing and programming the population
in general to have an appetite for disgusting scenes and nasty
violence, almost everything diss-approved of on the web has a precursor
and origin in film, and the appetites that people show on the web
today, can only be said to have been created and informed by the media,
pre the web ie film making. For instance there are plenty of films made
I personally couldn’t watch, because regardless of them being labelled
film fiction, they’re actual form is too realistic, and therefore to
psychologically scarring to watch. I could mention a few titles I had
to stop watching, but I wouldn’t wish to give them undue promotion. The
film industry has rarely if ever shown any self restraint from
distributing they’re boatload of violent and sexually aggressive films,
as they themselves do exactly what they wish to portray as evil on the
web in this film, ie they try to feed populist appetites as they
perceive them to be by feeding what they think will sell, regardless of
the moral programmatic feedback this engenders on the population
towards morally dubious content, ie the the “dare you look” theory that
Hollywood has morally desensitised the population with over the years,
in order to gain market share.

And this is what makes this film so highly hypocritical in operation,
as it is profiting by its criticism of violence voyeurism, but in a way
that “violence voyeurism” is vicariously exactly how this film itself
survives, the only difference being that it feels its acceptable due to
it being technically labelled a piece of fiction. But in fact this film
in a way itself adds fuel to the fire of violence voyeurism and thrives
by its glow.

And in way this films sub conscious and unwittingly revealed subtext is
that Hollywood feels threatened by the web, and is more worried about
losing its control over video distribution, ie the thing that worries
them about the net is losing control of the message they were
previously progandising to the public, and making profit with. So in a
way this film is about portraying the web based distribution medium as
being inherently immoral and needing controlling, whereas old media
film distribution networks were somehow magically more moral ? which is
in fact an illusion

Good elements :

The one issue this film attempts to tackle in a sensible way is the
idea of large news media organisations profiting viewing figures wise,
by broadcasting disturbing or harrowing footage, until it is forceably
removed by moral pressure.

which at least attempts to recognise the problems in the home camp of
the media as well as on the web.

Product placement :

Apple product placement in this film is really also quite over the top.

Conclusion :

Generally a weak film with too much agenda, will not make a difference
to your life to see this film, if its a choice between this and
something “made for TV”, and you have some time in your life you’d like
to dispose of, in a futile way, after say a hard days work, then this
OK, low grade propagandising popcorn fodder.