The
whole time I was watching Jobs I was comparing it to The Social Network, which
obviously isn’t fair because the two movies are on totally different playing
fields. However, they are both about two influential men who were plagued with
legal problems as well as social problems.
I knew very little about Steve Jobs
before this movie. I knew he started the Apple computer, the iPod and all that
stuff was his, I knew he wasn’t a good father and that he didn’t think he
needed to bathe. That’s all I knew about him, and in regards to Mark Zuckerberg
who The Social Network was about, I knew even less about, but The Social
Network showed me more about him, made him a human – well, an a-hole – and somebody
that in the end I pitied and made me glad that I would probably never
understand a guy like that. The movie Jobs showed me nothing all the stuff I
already knew and other stuff that in the end showed me nothing about the man.
I saw plenty of the products he was
making, though. I mean, I didn’t want to keep track of every time the movie
showed a computer board, or a computer, or a drawing of a computer, and played
music along with it signifying that something amazing is happening here because
it would have given me a headache. I think back to The Social Network and
though I’m sure they did show the actual Facebook during the movie, for the
life of me I cannot recall if they did for certain or not. In Jobs, though,
they sure as shit showed a ton of the products that Jobs is famous for making,
I mean seriously, they showed it a lot, and the music was so forced and the
acting . . . oh Jesus do not get me started on the acting – too late.
To be brief and to the point:
Ashton Kutcher seems to be mocking Steve Jobs
instead of impersonating him.
Now I ain’t no actor, I just know
what I like and what I feel works. Maybe some who see this movie feels that AK
got Steve Jobs, I mean really captured him – great, fine, but to me, he did
not. To me it was like something you’d see on an SNL skit, and I don’t mean to
say that it was horrible acting – though it weren’t good that’s for sure, it
just didn’t seem real. That guy who played Zuckerberg seemed to me to be
getting the guy and he portrayed him well.
I don’t know if all of this relies
on the story, directing, or if it is just the acting, all I know is Ashton
Kutcher a good Steve Jobs does not make.
The guy who played Steve Wozniak,
Josh Gad, that guy did a good job, he was funny and believable; pretty much
everyone else in the movie did well (although J.K. Simmons wasn’t in it much,
and when he was he didn’t have much to do other than glare at AK, which I can
only assume was because of his acting).
The movie was at times interesting;
it’s just that it chose to show more of what was not at all interesting. Jobs dropping
acid? I mean, is it ever interesting to see a character high on drugs and all
you see is their reaction to things that no one else can see? Not to me, and I’d
wager not too many others either.
The movie starts with Steve Jobs
presenting the first iPod. My wife sat through this much of the movie (she
lasted up to the acid trip scene) and I rolled my eyes while everyone in the
room was applauding the iPod and Jobs and my wife said that when it was
released it was a big deal, downloading music and all that. I get that, I said,
I mean, I’m younger than my wife but not that young, I was around and remember
the iPod (mostly I remember the commercials and how cool it was to have an iPod
(according to the commercials)) I know it was big deal when it was released,
but at this point it hasn’t been released (at least that’s what I understod) he’s
showing off the first one ever completed and all – there is no way all those
people knew right then how massive it would be. I’m sure some knew, but I just
can’t believe that so many people could see it for what it would become before
it was even on the market.
I mean, isn’t everything a gamble
until it’s a hit?
One last problem with the film was
that during the acid trip Jobs talks – briefly, like a sentence – in a
wondering way about how his mom could have given him up for adoption. I am
adopted, and you’d be surprised how this one thing can affect a person. There
are some who are adopted and they’re cool, I on the other hand – for whatever
genetic or natural reason – was bothered by the fact that my mom gave me up.
People would talk to me and tell me she probably had a good reason, and I can
understand that, I understand it wasn’t easy for her, but damn it it still bugs
me that I couldn’t have stayed with her. My adoptive parents are great and all,
I got no complaints, but still . . . ya know . . . it bugs me. I have met my
biological mom several times, and even my biological brothers, and managed to
meet my biological father once before he passed away, so I know I have it
better than some, but still it’s a thing to me.
Steve Jobs, on the other hand, is
apparently bothered by his mother giving him up, but then later in the movie he
completely ignores a daughter who is proven genetically to be his. No matter
what, Steve Jobs wants nothing to do with her. This is totally wrong and opposite
to what we’re led to think about him earlier in the movie.
Okay he’s a changed man – but that
change is not shown at all! He just gets big into computers and making money
and all of a sudden doesn’t want kids, only to turn around and start a family
later on in life? The movie does a very poor job of relaying any of the drive
behind these rather important choices. To go from wondering about being given
up for adoption and a few years later wanting nothing to do with your child, it
is completely out of left field and a better movie would have covered it in a
way that made it meaningful and given it the sort of weight such things deserve
(I may be alone, but that kind of stuff is WAY more important than how they
came up with the name for their company – which made me laugh so hard in how
horrible it was that I had to pause the movie I was laughing so hard).
Like I said, though, this movie isn’t
interested in the man, it’s interested in the legend of the man, and with
people like Steve Jobs, the actual man is much more interesting than the legend
that we got to see and read about on a regular basis.
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