There's a lot of competition out there around the same idea and plot from a sci-fi perspective, but there was an element or two in this movie that had a unique twist. The idea that a program fears for its survival more than anything else was different and the methods it chooses to go about ensuring this creates a bit of a divergent direction. Napoleon Dynamite kept coming to mind despite trying to move it out of my head throughout the film, but Hide and Seek beats the whininess of Wargames. School staff and government actually behaved in a way that was intelligent, making a lot of good (and some bad) decisions throughout the film.
Explanations as to how and why the computer program was doing what it was doing though took a big leap of the imagination, which is okay I suppose, but it does break the immersion of a scenario that could actually exist. A few pieces of dialogue were quite hokey. Also, it took a long time for people to realize a kid everyone including the teacher calls 'hacker' is behind a hacking. The diner scene where one guy asks to use the phone to whip out a computer for dial-up was surprising, especially since no one in the public place thought this was unusual in any way.
All-in-all, something to pass the time. Something philosophical to talk about after a few chuckles.
Explanations as to how and why the computer program was doing what it was doing though took a big leap of the imagination, which is okay I suppose, but it does break the immersion of a scenario that could actually exist. A few pieces of dialogue were quite hokey. Also, it took a long time for people to realize a kid everyone including the teacher calls 'hacker' is behind a hacking. The diner scene where one guy asks to use the phone to whip out a computer for dial-up was surprising, especially since no one in the public place thought this was unusual in any way.
All-in-all, something to pass the time. Something philosophical to talk about after a few chuckles.