Its not an unheard of story.  Think of the worst players of the NFL, the NBA, even the NHL.  I think its safe to assume they were the very best in their high school if not their state.  They are top grade, peak condition, skilled athletes who only look terrible because they are surrounded by the best.  The movie the Social Network begins at this juncture.  Mark Zuckerberg is a genius.  He is smart, forward thinking, creative, witty, and completely unspectacular compared to his fellow college students at Harvard University.  

Regardless of what liberties the story of the movie takes, this scenario is very much true.  The feeling of inferiority starts to sink in, and as a defense, Mark begins to project a slight superiority complex.  Maybe he didn't in real life.  Who knows?  What for sure did happen was this: Mark Zuckerberg set out to make something huge that would rise above all of the "average" smart people at Harvard.  The first step was to get attention.

Zuckerberg created Facemash.  As far as I can find, he did not do this while blogging about his girlfriend dumping him (in fact that girl doesn't exist).  In the movie, the creation of facemash is a scene that shows just how great of a director David Fincher is (as if Se7en and Fight Club hadn't done that already).  Zuckerberg narrates, explaining what separates his site from other sites and  how easily he can hack the Harvard database.  Inter cut with this is a scene featuring a bus full of girls showing up at a frat house.  The men of the frat house essentially call dibs on what girls they want and act accordingly.  The latter illustrates the life of a rich Harvard boy, the former demonstrates it being brought on line.  Facemash features girls that the people of Harvard knew, and they could pick out which one they wanted.  Misogynistic?  Probably.  But this shows a crude insight into what made facebook work.

From here that the movie's story starts being debated a little.  Some critics (and Zuckerberg himself) say that the movie uses greed and revenge (not to mention a strong desire for women) as the fuel that created facebook.  This is not what I saw.  Oh, sure, the character in the movie is very much in awe of the flashy lifestyle and of the beautiful ladies, but ultimately, he is the guy who wants to create something that will change the world.  He wants it to be better.  Mark Zuckerberg is a man who wanted to bring the entire social experience online and as the movie shows, he succeeded.  

I would say the movie does go too far to make Zuckerberg look alone and isolated (not to mention a bit of a prick).  In real life, Zuckerberg has had the same girlfriend since before facebook existed.  However, at the core of the story is the dissolving friendship between Zuckerberg and facebook's co-founder Eduardo Saverin.  From everything I gather, Zuckerberg did essentially screw over Eduardo, his best and only true friend.  Why?  Even the movie never makes it clear.  It does present an interesting question:  is succeeding in your life dream worth losing your best friend?  Most people's instinctive answer is to say no, but if you really think about it, is the answer so easy?  This heart wrenching question provides the true emotional core of The Social Network and reveals a very human side to the movie version of Zuckerberg.  I'm sure the real Zuckerberg wonders if things had to happen as they did.

If anyone should be upset about their movie portrayals, its Sean Parker and the Winklevoss twins.  Justin Timberlake does an incredible job at portraying Parker.  Unfortunately, that is the portrayal of a selfish, bandwagon riding, womanizing, drug using smooth talker who borders on a being a conman.  It is worth noting that Sean Parker is not the inventor of Napster, simply the co-founder.  I do wonder if his relationship with Napster was similar to what he did with facebook.  As for the Winklevoss twins, while hilarious, they ultimately come off as petty, spoiled brats who had never been beaten until they met Mark Zuckerberg.  I don't think they had any right to sue Zuckerberg.  They never actually did much of anything but sit and expect him to create something great for them.  I must say, props to the actor who portrayed those two.

By the time The Social Network ended, I'm sure some people felt pity for Zuckerberg.  Others probably felt disgust.  There were no doubt people who attached themselves to Eduardo and his tragic tale, and maybe, just maybe they sided with the Winklevoss Twins (or the Winklevi as Zuckerberg calls them).  As for me, I felt genuinely inspired.  Inspired to out think and out work the competition.  Completely original ideas are near non-existent these days.  Zuckerberg didn't invent the social network, he simply made it better by seeing what the people wanted and outworking everyone.  It probably could have stayed truer to the real story and still been just as good, but for what it is, The Social Network is a great (semi-true) story produced as a fantastic film that everyone should see.

PS.  It wouldn't be right to write this article without mentioning Jesse Eisenberg's committed portrayal of Zuckerberg.  His mannerisms and pattern of speech transform him into a completely different human being.  The dialogue written for him (as well as the dialogue of the whole movie) is fantastic but Eisenberg's delivery elevate it to a whole other level.