7.5/10
A documentary focusing on "hacktivists" and the internet collective known as Anonymous had a lot of promise, but with "We Are Legion" in the title, you knew you probably weren't getting an unbiased account. It does do an admirable job of telling the history of hacktivism, through l0pht and 4chan to harmless memes like "pool's closed" and lolcats up into globalized attacks on scientology and the role Anonymous and social networking played in the upheavals in Egypt and Tunisia. Of course, the contradictions are many, but that's part of what makes Anonymous so interesting - there's no centralized ideology, no manifesto that all members subscribe to. The collective is inherently contradictory and while the film acknowledges that, it's clearly on their side too. Which brings up another sticking point - did we really need a pro-Anonymous movie? Isn't this giving a voice to a group that has never needed one? A movie looking at the negative side of Anonymous would surely be interesting, but could one even be made without its creator having his email hacked and a thousand pizzas sent to his house? I don't know. There's still room for a good, unbiased account of the hacktivism phenomenon, but it might take a while before it gets made. Anyone interested in internet history who isn't expecting a masterpiece of investigative journalism should at least have a little fun with this in the meantime.
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