Jobs

So with the new Steve Jobs movie that just released starring Michael Fassbender, I thought it was time I finally got on board and started watching the biopics on Steve Jobs.

I find Steve Jobs very interesting, but more as a popular figure. I know Job's story and I know that he was kind of an asshole but an asshole that had an incredible vision. So while a movie about his life is somewhat interesting, its not the highest on my list of priorities to watch. And this movie was even lower of a priority of what I heard about how this movie did when it was released. But again, its time I got on the bandwagon and looked into the story of Steve Jobs.

The movie starts at a really random place. It starts with Jobs introducing the Ipod. Now don't get me wrong, the Ipod is really an ingenious piece of machinery but in the context of the entire movie, its not exactly relevant to the conflicts that seem to be the main parts of Job's life they want to touch on.

But that's kind of a theme throughout the movie so I'll keep going.

Also before I move on, I'm really glad they didn't spend a lot of the movie with Ashton Kutcher in old Steve Jobs make up because while he looks pretty good throughout the movie, this was not a good look for him to start on.

The movie then cuts to an episode of That 70s Show where Michael Kelso (played by Ashton Kutcher) has dropped out of college and he isn't quite sure what he wants to do with his life. So he drops some acid, goes to a couple art and computer classes, and goes to India.

You think I'm joking but I'm not.

Listen, I'm sure Steve Jobs did drugs when he was younger. It was the 70s, the guy was a little bit eccentric, I have no doubt he did a lot of drugs. But we've got a lot of ground to cover. This guys life was a lot more interesting than him dancing in a wheat field and some half assed attempt to bring in the fact that he was adopted, even though that never comes up again.

And that's a big problem with this movie. Again, Steve Jobs has a lot of angles of his life you can focus on. You can focus on the fact that he dropped out of college, you can focus on his relationship with his college girlfriend and how eventually they have a child together but Steve is so preoccupied with his work that he refuses to acknowledge that he's her father.

Or probably the most important part they could have focused on: the founding of Apple.

Seriously, the first act of this movie could have been a movie in itself. You've got Jobs and Wozniak starting up this business and they hire a bunch of their buddies come to help out, including a kid who lives in his neighborhood.

This could have been a whole movie in itself. And yeah, even acid dropping Jobs in college could have been half a movie in itself, but the point is, this movie tried to do way to much. Its trying to tell every minute detail of this guys life without really explaining why these parts were important.

I've seen movies that focus on a large portion of someone's life, they did it in Long Walk to Freedom, they've done it in a lot of other movies and sometimes it works, but a lot of the times, it doesn't.

So yeah, the way this movie starts off, not that great. However, it does pick up a little bit when they start up Apple. It starts off with them in his parents garage, then it just keeps growing and growing, all the while, Jobs is the driving vision of it all.

And this is where Ashton Kutcher actually starts to do a good job. Again, the whole beginning of him being lost and traveling to India, while I'm sure its important to the Jobs story, really made me think I was just watching a low key Michael Kelso from That 70's Show.

But when he starts getting focused on his vision for Apple, when he starts putting in front of everything, his friends, his family, that's when things get good.

Because in many ways, you don't like what he's doing. You don't like how he treats his friends, you don't like how he ignores his daughter. But at the same time, you know the outcome, you know that his vision is the right one and nothing will stand in his way.

Now, the problem with this that really holds it back from being a great performance as opposed to just a good performance is the writing. Its the structure of this film. Unfortunately, like the beginning, this movie takes on every issue that affected Steve Jobs and makes it a passing thing.

The main storyline is his journey through Apple. That was the main story, but then they throw in all these little side things that are suppose to be little nuggets about his life but turn into plot devices that go absolutely no where.

Its like the movie expects you to know a lot more about certain aspects of his life and make quick nods to them.

And then the even bigger issues, like the cutting out of his friends who helped him build Apple to where it becomes, that's kind of brushed off as well. There's about a five minute scene where they're sad about it for a second and then they're moving onto the next thing.

And its unfortunate because I think a lot of this movie has a lot of potential.

While I was skeptical about the selection of Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs, he's definitely not the worst part of the movie. He's good. And I feel like with a better script and some better direction, this could have been a great performance. But unfortunately, its just good. You can tell that Kutcher put a lot of work into this performance. I think if this movie had been written better and had been structured differently, I think this could have turned Kutcher's career in a totally different direction, as opposed to where it is now with 2 and a Half Men...

I wouldn't say the rest of the cast is poorly casted because I do enjoy a lot of the work from a lot of the people in this movie. Josh Gad played Steve Wozniak. J.K. Simmons plays a chief investor of Apple. Dermot Mulroney plays Job's first investor and I thought he did a really great job. These aren't bad choices and they're not bad actors, I don't know if its their performance or again the structure of the movie, but they're just not an exciting cast and that could be forgiven if they were utilized well, but they're not. Steve Wozniak kind of disappears half way through the movie and only appears later when he's leaving Apple.

Again, they're not bad choices for the roles and I think they did a good job, however, I just don't feel like the movie really gave them enough justice and therefore I can't say they're good performances.

Conceptually, great. The execution however is just not there.

A common theme throughout this movie.

Now I could delve into the historical accuracy of the movie because I've heard conflicting thoughts on both sides. I've heard that the movie takes a lot of liberties on the events that actually unfolded and personally, I don't really care.

If I wanted to know the exact way that the events of Steve Jobs went down, I'd watch a documentary or I'd just research it myself. This is a Hollywood movie, the purpose of it is to entertain and create a certain amount of drama.

And exaggerated or not, the story of Steve Jobs is a story that creates for a lot of drama. Unfortunately, the way this movie executes it is just not that great because they're juggling too many things at once.

You could make an entire movie about Job's time at Apple, his rise to the top, his power plays with his shareholders, the entire hiring of John Sculley. This could make an incredibly entertaining movie in itself. And a part of this movie really wants to be that Social Network kind of movie, where its glorifying a man who in all honesty, was a bit of an asshole. His vision takes priority.

Unfortunately, this movie didn't want to go the whole extra mile of making this as cutthroat and political as I think it probably could have been.

I watched a review of this movie a while back that predicted that this movie would have been better if it had been written by Aaron Sorkin and now the new Steve Jobs movie is written by Aaron Sorkin and that's why I'm really excited to see it.

But this movie just doesn't really accomplish either goals it sets out to achieve. It wants to glorify Steve Jobs but still show the cutthroat nature of the man. It wants to hold him on a pedestal but still show the way he cuts out his friends all for the vision of Apple. Its a very fine line to tight rope on and unfortunately the movie just doesn't deliver on that.

The last thing I'll mention about this film is that there's a weird Christ complex that they create with Kutcher's Jobs.

I don't quite understand it as Jobs was Buddhist and there's not really any kind of religious ties throughout the rest of the movie but there are a lot of points in this movie where Jobs is just surrounded by people and they're following him like they're his disciples. He ends the movie with a call out to the misfits of the world.

Is it intentional? I don't really know. But it underlines another problem with this movie and that's the really forced messages that get shoved down the audiences throats.

Now I don't know if the new Steve Jobs movie has these similar underlying messages that aren't that subtle, but there's a line in the trailer where someone asks Michael Fassbender what he does because Steve Jobs was not a brilliant computer scientist, a lot of the times he would think up an idea and slave drive a lot of people to create it for him. Fassbender responds, Musicians play their instruments, I play the orchestra. He also has a couple of ringer lines like Artists lead and hacks show for a raise of hands. Its lines like that that make for great trailer fodder but they don't make up the entire movie.

Unfortunately, this movie is made up of a lot of those lines and they're just forced in there. It takes you out of the movie and it just adds to the mess of a structure this movie is.

I'm really looking forward to the new Steve Jobs movie and this movie has made me want to go out and see it right away, because there is a story here. There is a very interesting story of a man who was taken too early that had incredible vision. I could comment on how quickly this movie came out or seemed to come out after Job's death, but that's bound to happen when someone this inspiration passes away. It happened with Long Walk to Freedom, and it happened with this movie.

Is Jobs worth checking out? Sure. I think if you want a sparknotes version of Job's life, and a halfway decent performance from Ashton Kutcher, I don't think it will hurt you to check this movie out. However, I'll be holding my breath until the Fassbender version to say what movie gave the better version of Job's life and better representation.

But those are my thoughts on Jobs. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below. You can also give me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and send me ideas for movies I should review in the future. If you want future updates on movie news and reviews, you can follow me on Twitter, I update regularly.

I'll leave you with this. Here's the trailer for the new Steve Jobs movie. Which one do you think is going to be better? Enjoy!