(ESP-ENG) Blackberry - The phone that changed everything!
Hello friends, good vibes to all.
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Who doesn't remember BBM (Blackberry Messenger) and the famous PIN or having a hard time with the blessed trackball when it got stuck and had to be changed? - This seems like a long time ago and the truth is that it's only been 15 years at most since this device arrived to change the game completely. I consider the Blackberry as an icon of pop culture, especially in Latin America, since the impact it had on society was gigantic, it was often associated with a status issue so that more and more people sought to get one of these phones. In the end it became more accessible due to the variety of models, but in the beginning it was not that way.
Tetris, the AIR brand, the series that tells us about the beginnings of Spotify, The Dropout, WeCrashed, are some of the productions out there that tell us about the birth of great ideas, brands and/or products that seem to be turning into extremely popular series and movies as time goes by. And the truth? - they are. In my case, I find it very interesting to see and learn how these empires, some of them already expired, were built from scratch and how they are able to take it to the screen and make it something entertaining and worth watching. All the examples I mentioned at the beginning of the paragraph I saw, all are very good, so the hype to see this film was logical that it would be great. So without further ado, let's go and talk a little bit about this story...
This journey begins like most of the great inventions and ideas that came to revolutionize the world, from nothing in a room full of madness. Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson), also the film's director, were best friends, typical video game lovers and tech junkies who were also incredibly smart. At first they might not inspire the greatest of confidence but it was certain that they had in mind what they wanted to do, they knew how to revolutionize the world of cellular telephony, they just needed a slight push. They were young people who had a group of friends, just as smart as they were, and together they called themselves RIM or Research In Motion. They had the skills but not the focus to think big.
That's where the third key piece of all that comes in, Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), a tough, shark-minded and otherwise ruthless businessman. But how does this person come into the lives of these young people? - Well, when they were trying to sell the idea of the telephone, they ran into each other at some point in the story and from there everything was born. From here on a purely commercial relationship begins, because nothing else is seen, where from nothing these people create a phone that became the absolute dominator of cell phones covering almost 50% of the market, we will see how this company reaches its highest level of sales and popularity to then be affected by the arrival of another monster even more fearsome and that would end up dethroning them in one blow: the IPhone.
This kind of movies and how good and acceptable they can be will depend on how interesting and entertaining is the way the story is told and this basically goes hand in hand with the performances we see because we are talking about the budget of this film is only 5 million dollars. For such a budget I must say that the film is more than fine, in the almost two hours it lasts I never felt it was slow or boring, on the contrary, I found it strangely interesting. I don't know how much fiction is behind what I saw, I imagine there must be some, but at least the relationship between the two friends, Jim's way of being and proceeding in the management of the company, I saw it as less interesting.
The story always goes in a linear way according to the events that develop little by little, so understanding it is very easy. Something that is common in this kind of plots is that people's personalities change according to their success, power and money, and I say this for better and for worse; in this particular case it happens with the two inventors. One seems to have been trapped in time without being able to dimension the point at which the company is and the responsibilities that entails while the other was gradually consumed by the need to always create and be at the forefront. This made the behavior more hostile and drier. I say all this because it is very striking to see that relationship and how the interests are taking different paths.
There will always be good and bad, none of these great projects were built without having decided on some questionable decision or having taken an extremely large and even unnecessary risk, all of them advanced to be at the tip of the ledge. All this leads us to see these projects at their peak but also to see their downfall, and Blackberry's, it must be said, was a resounding one. To see how they were not able to adapt to new technologies by mere stubbornness and for continuing to believe in an idea that in principle was innovative is something that could be considered even sad, the potential of Blackberry was very large, they had the market studied, people knew them and still could not survive.
As for the characters, they were decent, none of them is a great actor nor had a solid and unforgettable performance, but enough to make the movie not a disaster. Glenn Howerton, the businessman, was pretty good, he is the typical person who only thinks of his personal interests, he is a being, at least as shown in the film, very rude. These characters are always necessary because they are the ones who give a little life to the story. And on the other hand Jay Baruchel is another one who was up to the task, a very introverted character, withdrawn and it seems that he was always dominated by others. The plot twist is that he was always the one who had the last word, that says that the most influential is not the one who speaks or shouts the loudest.
A good movie, I like these films are these themes that open our eyes to understand how were those first steps of these great brands. I give it an 8.5/10 because I consider it one of the best I've seen in this genre, very well told, well acted, not tiring or boring and also has an important nostalgia factor because it takes us to the time of the nineties and early 2000s that was interesting at the technological level as it was the birth of what we know today. It has a duration of a little less than two hours. I leave the trailer below.
¡Un abrazo a todos, nos vemos en la próxima!
Well my people that's all for today, I hope you liked it.
¡A hug to everyone, see you next time!
Hola amigo, este tipo de películas que cuentan una historia me gustan las hace sentir un poco más realistas, esta me llama la atención, aunque debo admitir que nunca tuve un Blackberry jajaja pero es ingenioso conocer el trasfondo de las grandes corporaciones qué cambiaron la historia.
Realmente los BB si cambiaron la historia, de hecho fueron ellos los que abrieron la puerta para que los grandes cambios se dieran más adelante. Yo si tuve Blackberry y la cercanía con la historia es más grande porque sabes tal cual como es el producto, Es muy top el film la verdad.
Me encantaria ver esta pelicula, y eso que yo nunca pude tener un blackberry pórque en ese tiempo estaba en la universidad, pero si recuerdo lo que dijiste, todo el mundo hacia de todo para tener un telefono de esos, si no tenias uno, no eras nadie, que tonteria la verdad. Pero debio ser duro para sus dueños ver como el iphone los saco del juego.Gracias por recomendarla
Yo el mío me la gané en un rifa, imagínate jaja y me duró unos cuantos años. Era un teléfono muy llamativo para la época, obviamente era todo nuevo. Pero si, la gente hacía lo imposible para tener un BB pero creo que era por el tema del BBM, en aquel momento el WhatsApp no había llegado o era muy nuevo y tener esa comodidad de chat era brutal. Si puedes vela porque vale mucho la pena!
La disfruté muchísimo, al principio no le tenía fé y la única razón por la que la Vi fue porque me llamaba la atención la idea de crear una película alrededor de un producto que al final fracasó en vez de ser un éxito (Como Tetris o Air) y el resultado final me dejó muy satisfecho, es una película caótica y divertida y al final nos hace reflexionar sobre el impacto que tuvo el iPhone en el marcado del smartphone y como hizo que la visión de Blackberry quedara en el pasado.
Y con todo y eso los Blackberry resistieron unos cuantos años más, como hasta el 2012 o 2013 pero ya para ese entonces los primeros smartphones salieron y adiós. Pero si, el IPhone fue el culpable de la debacle. Me gustó mucho las actuaciones tanto del empresario como de Mike, para mi eso fue la razón de la vida que tiene este film. Fue una historia muy bien contada.
Si no se hubiesen cegado a su orgullo la compañia aun existiera, quizas hasta yo tendria un Blackberry. En aquel entonces no tenia para comprarme uno y ahora que hay mas posibilidades no existen jaja, es lamentable el fracaso.
Muy lamentable, quisieron hacer algo parecido pero China y su mano de obra barata tenían otros planes. Creo que si hubiesen tenido un poco de mente abierta y entender las realidades capaz hubiesen podido ser más competitivos pero no fue el caso, el todo de ellos era que querían y confiaban en los teclados físicos, esa fue la piedra que trancó el camino.
Los mercados se mueven muy rápido. Hay una frase que dice no entres muy rapido y tampoco muy tarde. Eso aplica para todo, sea mercado criptografico, de valores o de tecnología. El film me recuerda a Nokia, Kodak y daewoo.
A pesar de conocer no debes subestimar el mercado y debes tratar de innovar a ritmos estandarizados. La verdad es que este nuevo siglo ha traido grandes cambios. Blackberry dominó como nokia el mercado de teléfonos. Lo mismo puede pasar con cualquier empresa.
Lo de BB, según se entiende en la película, fue más que todo por falta visón y terquedad, al salir el IPhone ellos pudieron por lo menos sacar una teléfono que fuera competencia pero no lo hicieron; todo por el bendito teclado físico. Abrieron la puerta para ese mundo pero no supieron mantener el camino. De verdad me parece increíble la historia de la Blackberry, como un día estás arriba, muy arriba y al otro en quiebra.
Totalmente de acuerdo que fueron la revolución en su momento, yo también tuve Blackberry :)
Ellos muestran como fueron la moda y como pasaron de moda.
Excelente reseña.
Saludos