Review of Jobs (2013) by Thomas W — 10 Oct 2013

This is the film they came up with as the biography of Steve Jobs? It is exactly the opposite of what one would expect from a film that is supposed to pay tribute to the ground-breaking and pioneering technological ace who is (sometimes) solely credited with creating and developing the corporate behemoth known as Apple that is worshipped by many and reviled by a few.

The film opens in 2001 at the unveiling -- by Jobs (Ashton Kutcher - What Happens in Vegas) himself -- of the original/first generation iPod, a revolutionary device that changed how millions upon millions of people listened to music, in an Apple Town Hall meeting full of devotees who would most-likely walk to the ends of the earth for this entrepreneurial wizard.

The film then jumps back to 1974 to begin telling the story of Jobs' unlikely ascension in the corporate world as he was a college dropout of Reed College who luckily had a series of benefactors like Mike Markkula (Dermot Mulroney - The Family Stone) who believed in his creativity and ideas allowing him to travel the world before landing a job in the early 80s at Atari working with his childhood friend, Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad - 21).

Jobs (the movie) tries to include so many of the people who have been associated with Jobs (the man) over the years and so many of them are so briefly introduced in the short film that few have any impact here.

The movie is a very generic biopic that follows all of the rules and offers the audience nothing innovative like the similarly-themed and far superior The Social Network did a few years. The film spans the both the 70s and 80s and even has a most predictable soundtrack with Cat Stevens playing at the most opportune times.

The film is rather sad and it doesn't even really portray the man as anything exciting or inspiring ... he comes across as a dull man who stares a lot (it is how Kutcher conveys Jobs in deep thought) and the film is flatter than a touchscreen.

The film is about the early days of Apple -- and it does provide a few interesting moments of tech history -- but as a whole the opportunity is squandered by a first-time screenwriter (Matt Whiteley) and poor direction (Joshua Michael Stern - Swing Vote).

The film is anything but inspirational and it remains a mystery as to how he amassed his loyal followers. It is as head-scratching as one of Jobs' first lines in the film: "Believe this is important and exciting .

.. because I say so." Perhaps some of us simply cannot be swayed by his techie swag.