Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		5.0

The Social Network 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

"How about now? You still wired in?"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 13, 2025

One of the things that often goes overlooked with David Fincher films is the sheer momentum he infuses into each project. Bristling with angst and verve, even a film like The Social Network practically pulses with speed and intention, lunging from one encounter to the next with unbridled tenacity. Strange, considering how much of the movie features its future tech titan and his adversaries merely sitting at desks and conference tables, mentally duking it out in the worlds of computer programming and legal mediation. Teamed with writer Aaron Sorkin, the resulting energy is pure electricity, freely flowing along every conduit that will carry it to its inevitable and climactic end. Dialogue assaults the viewer with machine-gun ferocity. Plotting darts nimbly from jaw drop to jaw drop. Character arcs live and die within the span of a breath. Everything serving and driving toward a painfully poignant conclusion that threatens to humanize the monster we've watched destroy every person in his path for the better part of two hours. And that's before considering the prescience of The Social Network in 2025, when Mark Zuckerberg -- more aligned with his portrayal in the film than ever -- has once again appeared, eager to join a growing legion of tech-bros serving at the pleasure of the president. What fate awaits us in the hands of those even Fincher and Sorkin seem incapable of containing?

"Mr. Zuckerberg, do I have your full attention?"

"I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition. I don't want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no... I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try. But there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention. You have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing. Did I adequately answer your condescending question?"

Fall Semester. Harvard. 2003. Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is about to embark on a journey that will make him the youngest billionaire in the world. A recent break-up drives him to create a campus-wide social site that allows users to rate the appearance of girls on campus. His site gains notoriety around school, and the university's network is quickly overloaded. Word of his coding genius quickly spreads and he's approached by two high-GPA members of the Harvard crew team, twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer), who ask him to help them create a social site dubbed "Harvard Connection." However, Mark quickly realizes the potential and expands on the idea and concentrates his efforts on a social site he calls "The Facebook." Mark, spurred on by ambition and his fledgling personal life, enlists friend and fellow student Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) to back the site, serve as its CFO, and help him expand it into other universities' networks. When The Facebook reaches Stanford University on the West Coast, it earns the attention of Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) who takes Mark under his wing in hopes of riding his coattails to financial and personal success. Told in flashback form, The Social Network recounts Mark's legal battles as he wards off lawsuits from former colleagues who feel spurned by the billionaire and want their piece of the Facebook pie.

Click here to read the rest of Martin Liebman's review of The Social Network, which he calls "nothing less than an illustrious instant classic that achieves a level of meaning and significance rarely attained by a work of art." Adding, "Fincher's picture seems superficially trivial and centered on a subject that doesn't appear to lend itself to be more than a quickly forgotten movie of the week, but like the great storytellers of cinema are apt to do, Fincher turns the story of a genius programmer, his website, and his personal and legal trials into a modern day allegory, a reflection of society that's as darkly disturbing as the film is beautifully alluring."

The Social Network 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Social Network makes the transition to 2160p 4K without incident. Backed by a director-approved, upscaled 4K master, the film has, quite simply, never looked better, although the improvements are obviously less striking than the bump to a native 4K presentation might have been (impossible as that is in this case). Colors are true to Fincher and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth's intentions, wandering between warm, starkly yellowed sequences and cold, steely shots. Boosted by Dolby Vision, the palette is even richer, the contrast more satisfying, and black levels even inkier, without any hits to delineation. It's a gorgeous, filmic image and it never disappoints. Detail is terrific, with crisp edges and refined textures, making faces -- and subsequently the actors' performances -- that much more alive on the screen. The race scene is particularly stunning, moving from the shore to the boats with ease, and without any hint of macroblocking or aliasing. Banding and other issues are also completely absent, at least to the naked eye, and the encode appears to be healthy and proficient.

The Social Network 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's pounding score is the primary beneficiary of Sony's magnificent Dolby Atmos experience, with its electric beats and buzzsaw guitar riffs filling the soundfield with danger and menace at every turn. LFE output is startlingly aggressive in these moments, as is surround channel activity, transforming what could easily be a front-heavy, dialogue-centered chat-fest into a whirring, growling beast of a score. Then there are bits like the Ruby Skye sequence, which thrusts the listener into the chaos of a jarringly noisy club where voices are nearly drowned in the cacophony of music and cries of the crowd. It's all so wonderfully immersive that you'll swear you're in the middle of the dance floor, wondering where the hell your friends went. Directionality is so convincing that several environments and locations are unnervingly believable, pans are silky smooth, and dynamics are excellent. Add to that pinpoint prioritization that knows when to push the music forward and when to pull it back so the dialogue can be uninterrupted by anything other than the characters' own arguments and you have an Atmos mix that's as exceptional as it is efficient.

The Social Network 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailers (Disc 1, HD) - The only extras found on the 4K disc is the film's trailers.

• Audio Commentaries (Disc 2, HD) - Two audio commentaries are included: the first with director David Fincher and the second with writer Aaron Sorkin and actors Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer and Josh Pence. Both are terrific.

• How Did They Ever Make a Movie of Facebook? (Disc 3, HD, 93 minutes) - Divided into four segments ("Commencement," "Boston," "Los Angeles" and "The Lot"), this excellent documentary features fly-on-the-wall footage interspersed with interviews with key members of the cast and crew. Comprehensive in every regard, it's a feature-length powerhouse primed for fans of the film who both want a breakdown of the production and an analysis of the film's themes, importance and larger dealings. From table reads (with plenty of notes from Fincher) to final takes (with Sorkin on set), start here rather than the commentaries to lend the tracks greater context and richness.

• Three Post-Production Featurettes (Disc 3, HD, 44 minutes) - "The Visuals" with Fincher and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth; "Post" with editor Angus Wall, editor Kirk Baxter and sound designer Ren Klyce; and "The Score" with Fincher and composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. All are interesting but the best of the bunch is "The Score," if only because a film's music so often goes underexplored in supplemental suites.

• Music Exploration (Disc 3, HD) - A look at the use of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" during The Social Network's rowing scene, from first to final draft.

• Swarmatron (Disc 3, HD, 4 minutes) - Reznor introduces a unique instrument.

• Ruby Skye VIP Room (HD, 19 minutes) - A scene broken down into four multi-angle parts.

The Social Network 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Paired with Panic Room, The Social Network's 4K release makes for a fantastic Fincher double feature and another top-notch Sony 4K debut. Excellent video, outstanding Atmos audio, and hours upon hours of special features make this one a must-own. Retire that standard Blu-ray and enjoy, this one comes highly recommended.