Despite all the good reviews here, I have to say I found the Australian "Underground: The Julian Assange Story" slow and somewhat boring. Of course it can't compare to The Fifth Estate, which I actually sat through in the movies. Thanks to whomever arranged that deal for Benedict Cumberbatch, his career almost ended.

This one starts when Julian (Alex Williams) is young, and he, his mother (Rachel Griffiths) and his baby brother escape his stepfather, who wants to take the boys to a cult. His existence was a nomadic one; he lived in something like 30 cities growing up in Australia.

He gets into hacking with his friends early on, and they make bets about what places they can hack, not realizing that the phone lines will eventually trip them up.

While an older teen, Julian gets his girlfriend (Laura Wheelwright) pregnant, and things become difficult when he can't tear himself away from his buddies and hacking.

Eventually, as we know, he hacks into military Desert Storm plans and realizes that the public isn't being told important things.

The film does not go into the big 2010 Wikileaks scandal when the organization released documents of "Iran war logs, gunsight footage of the Baghdad airstrike, and the Afghan war diary. Actually the film's focus seems to be more on Assange's life.

Alex Williams was very good as Assange, protective of his family, contemplative, and extremely bright. Rachel Griffiths, never one of my favorites, didn't have much to do in this. I watched nearly the whole film before I realized Assange's nemesis was Anthony LaPaglia. I feel he is one of the most underrated actors ever, able to inhabit a role and make it seem easy and natural.

One of the best things about the film was seeing the old computers, the dial-ups, the enormous cell phones, all the old technology.

Many of the reviews here were written before the recent doings of Wikileaks, and now we learn that Assange is somewhat selective in what he's decided to tell us about the candidates for President so that we don't get the real story. We also learned that certain emails he submitted were fraudulent. It's disappointing - he started out with some noble goals, and he was sincere. Now, I don't know.

How much 'fact' is involved with this story of Julian Assange early life I do not know. But the movie as itself stands as great entertainment, perfectly cast and with a fantastic script!

Alex Williams as the young Assange gives a powerhouse performance of a young man focused and driven by his wanting to expose 'the truth' and not cause damage in the process. And he achieves his goal even with the dial-up internet of the late 1980's and early 1990's.

The 'authorities' are full of disdain and envy for this group of geniuses and their knowledge of up and coming technology. Assange laid the groundwork for the digital oversight 'the press' has failed to utilize in their mission as the fourth estate to keep an eye on corruption in the state and corporations.

This movie shows that Assange is a 21st century hero!

After watching this film, I can safely say I am fully on Julian's side. However, this film is in no way biased, it simply presents the facts. The acting is brilliant, and Alex Williams performance is quite amazing to watch, as he portrays the socially unsure character of Julian Assange. I for one was quite rejecting of Assange's pleas for mercy during the Wikileaks scandal of 2010, but now, I can safely say I am open to all sides of the story. If I had one complaint, it would be that this film does not allow any time to tell the story of the 2010 Wikileaks scandal, in fact, all we as the viewers get to witness is a short summary of what happened before the ending credits. However, all is forgiven, as this is an "origin story", and not a biographical film. The Soundtrack is excellent, and it's beautifully filmed. This tele-movie is a real gem, and deserves to be played in Australian cinemas, especially when some of the other rubbish seems to gain access to our screens. See this movie, and decide for yourself, you won't regret it!