Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I started watching The Circle with high hopes. I left it feeling disturbed and angry. Here's why. The circle is about a huge corporation similar to facebook that has users all over the globe. The Circle has started creating new technology that will place cameras everywhere so that they can not only watch but analyze as many people as they can. The thousands of employees in this company think this is great. In fact, the employees believe in not having any privacy at all and sharing every detail of their lives to virtual strangers. They even believe they're entitled to know about other people's personal lives without permission. Strangely, the public isn't bothered by this. While watching this movie it was making me cringe all over. I thought surely the writers and directors will eventually point a spotlight on how messed up this is. I expected Emma Watson's character to see the light and realize the importance of people's privacy, but that never happened. By the end of the movie Emma Watson is the strongest believer and advocates that everyone wear body cameras at all times in order to make their lives "transparent" to the world. She essentially believes that if everyone knows everything about everyone there will be no lying and no crime. I kept waiting for the reveal when she realizes how corrupt and ridiculous this idea is. But by the end of the film she continues to believe it wholeheartedly and this apparently makes it a happy ending. The movie ends in positive tone, basically saying she was right and that this is okay. Which just disturbed me and made my skin crawl. I felt like the directors/writers were giving some twisted message about privacy. "It's all okay as long as you have nothing to hide." (I wonder where I've heard that before?) Besides the fact that this movie was cringe-worthy from beginning to end, every character in the movie felt fake. No one except John Boyega's character and Emma Watson's parents felt like real people. Every employee of the Circle was basically a robot who never acted like a real person. Of course none of them have anything to hide and they don't keep secrets. Who does? Even Emma Watson's character felt fake. She comes from a rural town with limited technology yet after a few months at The Circle she jumps at the chance to let herself be monitored by millions of viewers 24/7, and it hardly affects her psychological state. Uh-huh. Sure. The Circle is not worth two hours of your life. I suggest you avoid this one.