The Fifth Estate

Awaiting to get some interesting insight of Wikileaks, Assange, the people behind, their struggling for truth, how the world reacted, how did the leaks change, the risks, the media campaigns,.... I was really disappointed. The movie was an average spy movie at best. Take any spy movie with an eccentric main anti-hero fighting against everyone but in the end being supported, victorious and glorified .. for being basically a jerk... so take such a movie and replace the key phrases with 'wikileaks' and the charactor's name with Assange, then you get this move. It was so mainstreamed I didn't believe anything they showed because I already saw it in too many other movies. I don't know why they chose to put the wikileaks label on it, maybe just to get more views and money. To be honest it was the only reason I watched it to the end, any other movie I would have stopped after half an hour

Giving life to one of the great people in the history of humanity Julian Assange, who uncovered the hidden truth of the manipulation of information. Information is power, disinformation is a form of mass control, but the truth is out there, you just have to find it, as the actor says at the end of the film.

There is a lot of corruption and manipulation in this world. Those who posses most of the resources, control the flow of information. The old-fashioned censorship transformed into more devious, more subtle ways. Mix in some highly emotional, but completely irrational nationalism, and you rule this foolish planet. And then arrives Julius Assange, much maligned villain or praised hero, depending on one's political views. I am a passionate liberal, so I welcome any push to reclaim some of our liberties. The movie, though is a mixed bag. Not being a hip computer geek, I admit that grungy camera work, and immensely irritating music doesn't help the clarity of the plot. Nevertheless, there was a story to be told. And Hollywood being Hollywood, it all got tangled and mangled into a mess of not very much logic, but very, very much of now days so prevalent shiny packaging of glorious nothing.

This political-geek thriller that is The Fifth Estate is really tedious, right from the start you find yourself submerged under a mass of info too important to decode and it becomes therefore quite difficult to get a good understanding of the whys and wherefores of the established problematics. The scenario is extremely weak and just piles up too rapidly and with not much coherence disjointed, not to say sloppy, story lines. Bill Condon's fatal error has been to try to develop too many things and consequently, nothing is deeply explored and everything remains too superficial, too confused and not captivating at all despite a subject that deserved to be tackled.

THE FIFTH ESTATE may prove a little too "slow" and "boring" for anyone without a direct interest in the WikiLeaks scandal, revolution, or whatever we choose to call it. Nevertheless, the acting by all the major players is quite good, and the storyline is well-paced and very engaging. Without being the least bit preachy or heavy-handed, this film leaves much to think about regarding what's really going on out there in the big bad world. Assange's speech at the end concerning everything he's discovered through the WikiLeaks ordeal, the whole big pursuit of truth, etc, provides a fine culmination to this film. Still, it's all presented in an unpretentious, accessible manner.