Sometimes it's definitely best to watch a movie once the hype and controversy surrounding it has calmed down. Now, this is not a very good biopic but it's not a bad movie as well!
This movie suffers from a lot of the same problems as many other modern biopics suffer from. For one, it's too afraid to make a statement and plays things safe, all throughout. It believes that once it's going to depict its main subject as someone 'bad' or unsympathetic, it's going to loose some of its viewers. The result is a very shallow biopic, that isn't telling us anything new or insightful and besides feels like it's sugar coating a lot of things. Things are never Steve Jobs' fault and it's always him against the rest of the world, while he's the one distancing himself from people and is even backstabbing some of his oldest friends.
This all still could have worked out fine, as long as the movie would have been able to provide us with a look inside Jobs' mind. See the world through his eyes and makes us understand why he made certain decisions and why he was who he was. But Jobs remains a pretty mysterious and unpredictable character, all throughout this movie. The one moment he is friendly and calm, the other he's having an outburst, that feels like its coming out of absolutely nowhere.
But everything in this movie basically feels like its coming out of nowhere. There is never a good build up to anything because it's trying to tell far too much. That means it's rushing through things at times and the whole movie feels like a telling of events, rather than one that's actually trying to tell a story. It's like "Steve Jobs: The Wikipedia Page - The Movie" and not "Steve Jobs: The Person - The Movie". After watching this movie, it doesn't at all feels like I have learned anything about Jobs his life or personality.So it's a shallow movie but in this case not also an unwatchable one. I mean, it still does a perfectly fine job telling you everything that happened during Jobs' career (Well, the begin years anyway) and it also is basically a good looking period piece and the acting also isn't that bad.
Ashton Kutcher got most of the little mannerisms right and he obviously studied Jobs a lot but I still really can't say that he was a great choice for the role as well. His acting in this movie seems to have an only limited range to it. But really, he still isn't a terrible Jobs in this movie. I feel that most blame should be put on its writing and storytelling instead, rather than on any of its actors.
I still really don't get why this movie wasn't given to a more prolific and experienced director. I mean, this is a pretty interesting and promising subject and besides, it's potential Oscar bait but they decided to give this movie to Joshua Michael Stern, who previous to this, had only done two movies, which both got mixed reviews and of which neither was a biopic or one about a serious subject.
It's perfectly fine to watch this movie, as long as you're not expecting a movie that's going to move or inspire you or one that's going to give you any insightful and new information about Jobs and his life.
6/10
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