Emma Watson’s newest film, The Circle, was about a young woman named Mia who goes to work for a google-like company called the circle. The company goal is to get as many users as they can and as much information from those users as possible. They can then use all that personal information for whatever they please. Mia’s life is saved when she almost drowns in sight of cameras that the circle has set up all over the world to monitor everything. As a result she decides to live her life completely “transparent” and broadcast her every move to the entire world. This creates conflicts with family and old friends and is how most of the plot is driven forward. Past the discussion it brings up with access and rights to knowledge and a private life there isn’t much right with this movie.

To start off with the list of issues was the writing. Some of the dialogue was cheesy and awkward at times. It either wouldn’t fit the mood of the situation or was just kinda dumb when it wasn’t supposed to be.

The writing could have been excused if the acting would have covered for it, but sadly it was not the case. I am not completely sure of Mia was written so bland or if that’s the way Watson acted her, but either way it wasn’t the most entertaining. Both Tom Hanks and John Boyega’s characters received very little screen time and were incredibly flat characters. Bill Paxton did well as Mia’s father with M.S. and delivered one of the better performances in the film, although still not one of his best.

There was also some pacing issues through the movie. Despite only being an hour and 50 minutes, it felt a bit longer. Some scenes could have been cut down a bit or didn’t have to drag on for as long. For example, when Ty (John Boyega’s charger) goes to show Mia the server room where all the Circle’s data is held they have to go down several floors of long hallways. We do not need to see them going down the entire hallway when they say nothing to each other. Its kinda boring and unnecessary.

The ending was also terrible. It is one of the most anticlimactic things I have seen in awhile. It is unsatisfying and i found myself asking if that was really it.

This movie was obviously supposed to contain some sort of statement about privacy and how all knowledge should be allowed to everyone but the execution made if fall short. At best, it was an astounding “Meh”.