The Fifth Estate

Not since the Cruise/Cruz pairing in 'Vanilla Sky' has the world seen a duo so exceptionally unlikable. Cumberbatch mixes up his usual sociopathic genius routine with a groan worthy display of self-importance. Brühl completes the tour de intolerable with a charisma devouring somberness so dull, that he nullifies the charm of Alicia Vikander. Was Wikileaks really important? Looking at the world today, I would say no. But then again, if not, why did the CIA make this movie?

The screenplay really just isn't very good. I initially thought Cumberbatch was good casting, and it probably was, but I don't think he was sure of or comfortable with what he was doing. It comes across as pretty biased towards portraying Assange in a negative light. After a little research, I see that the film changed or just plain made up a lot of the events, and it's hard not to see it as propaganda. It kind of just feels like a waste of time now.

It's not as terrible as some reviews say, but it's very annoying if you're genuinly interested in the subject and in the end you really don't have any clue how close this movie is to the truth. Well, maybe I shouldn't be so lazy and read a book, instead of trying to learn stuff by watching movies.

What a disappointment. It rose to the level of cringeworthy more than a few times. The writing was transparent and preachy. The copious CGI was terrible (Oh you heard me right). Brühl was flat and uninteresting, and even Cumberbatch's performance lacked the usual complexity. The only saving grace was the wonderful Laura Linney, who is an gold-plated angel of warm feelings. Her scenes felt like they were from some other movie entirely (ie. one that didn't suck). Someone give her a hug please.

It works best if you look at it as a very personal story about what it's like for a relatively ordinary guy to be swept up in a human maelstrom like Assange. That said, they really should have beeb able to do something more with that cast.

As a character study of Assange it is surface level, as a thriller it is not thrilling and as a recent-events history movie it just runs us pretty blandly through the motions. Not a lot to recommend here.

Needed. But, there are plenty inaccuracies. Blaming Wikileaks of releasing the Underacted Diplomatic Cables is childish at least. (read about it)

Beautifully overacted by Cumberbatch.

Extremely disappointing considering the massively sweeping revelations and the story of Assange himself. The only highlight for me was Laura Linney in a too limited role.

Assange is a scuzzy guy, all the criticism levelled at him here and elsewhere is perfectly valid. However, there's barely anything more than a surface reading of the events he set in motion. It falls into the same trap as the criticism itself, that it's all about Assange - Berg is such a blank paragon of virtue that I can't remember a single thing about him. The film's somewhat saved by the performances but for all it being about complexity it's reductionist as fuck.

' Recommendable, but don't expect too much. A thing that bothered me in order for this film to be more authentic (especially when it's based on a true story) is the lacking of native language in the countries they're in. And I must agree with a nother user; everytime Laura Linney had a scene it felt like I was watching a different movie - a better one.

Interesting.

Honking stupid techno-thriller where normally the film would be all for the protagonists sticking it to the man and taking down governments and oil companies, but because this film was part of of the smear campaign against Assange, the film makes him out to be a power crazed weirdo fraud and that we shouldn't like him. This really messes with the moral of the story. Assange aside, the film is terrible.

Best Movie In My Life

Blunt directing, average casting, arbitrarily score, conventional set design and camerawork - and stil a solid movie. How? It asks the important questions of our time, of my generation. Even if it does it in a pretty over-ambitious way. However: Maybe unfinished movies like this lead the way to something good, something new, something important. Something progressiv, in the most educational way this word can be used - just (I hope!) like Wikileaks!

If you like all the cyberpunk, hacktivism, free flow of information, no censorship themes you are going to like this, is kind of David v/s Goliath with internet as a the weapon. I really like the set up, a lot is showed in Berlin and Europe. I don't know how close to reality the movie is because Assange is showed as a prick, but you have to remember that is based on a book.

pretty interesting watch, you should watch it right after the documentary We Steal Secrets (2013) to get more out of it..

The big lie here is Assange's view on name redaction - the movie repeatedly tries to make Assange look like he wanted to recklessly publish everything unredacted, but this did not really happen. The closing captions also make it sound like Assange published 250K unredacted cables entirely of his own agency, but this happened after the leak of a crucial password by another journalist. WikiLeaks responded at https://wikileaks.org/The-Fifth-Estate.html - see also http://wlcentral.org/node/379

Just fine.

this was a technically proficient film, and contained an excellent performance by benedict cumberbatch. as a filmic representation of morally ambiguous events, and as a complex character study of a controversial figure, however, the film was rather disappointing. what makes me sad about this film is that it had all the ingredients to be a great, topical film, but ultimately squandered those ingredients by opting for the easiest, most superficial solution and interpretation at every level.

It was interesting, and pretty well done. Not sure why it bombed so bad.

So it somehow feels fitting in a curiously circular way that WikiLeaks, long before The Fifth Estate arrived in theaters, obtained and, of course, leaked a script for the project before posting this tweet: "As WikiLeaks was never consulted about the upcoming Hollywood film on us, we've given our advice for free: It's bad". (pluggedin.com)

This docudrama, like All The President's Men, assumes all the viewers are familiar with every detail of the scandals that Julian Assange and his Wikileaks disclosed. So it flicks quickly over the headlines barely giving you time to read anything. I get it, Mr Director: we're not supposed to care about the facts. We're only supposed to care about the grey morality of revealing the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and naming names. But dammit I'm interested in the facts too.

A bizarre flick to say the least, conflicted in tone and structure, weighed down with bizarre and ridiculous CGI, and suited'n'booted with the strangest ending this side of that Planet of The Apes remake: Cumberbatch as Assange - and he make a great Assange, that much I cannot deny - telling the audience, in a piece-to-camera, not to trust films about Wikileaks, as they'll never reveal the whole truth. It's bizarre, self-referential and meta in the worst kind of way, like some kind of shitty PSA