David Says JOBS Leaves A Lot To Be Desired
In what could have been Ashton Kutcher’s calling card, Jobs starts off masterfully and then turns into a mistold story about one of the great, if not greatest, innovators of our time.
Jobs begins in 2001, with an older-looking Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) revealing to the world the iPod. The next scene takes us back to 1974 at Reed College, where Steve has dropped out of school but still attends several classes to gain knowledge and further his pursuit to change the world. Fast forward to two years later and Steve has taken a job at Atari where he has been described as “difficult to work with” but still good at what he does. When offered $5,000 if he could complete a gaming project (Breakout) he asked for the help of his good friend Steve “Woz” Wozniak (Josh Gad), who helped complete the circuit board for the game. After helping Steve with his project, Woz showed Steve his new innovation in personal computers.
After realizing the potential in Woz’s personal computers, Steve convinces Woz to sell the computers under the name Apple, because “it’s the fruit of creation.” In the beginning stages of Apple, Woz and Steve work from the garage of Steve’s parent’s house, until former Intel engineer Mike Markkula (Dermot Mulroney) invests in the Apple II and is introduced in 1977 at the West Coast Computer Faire. Soon after is when the movie’s flaws begin to mount more and more. From Steve becoming more about the product than business, to his creative direction being stripped away and then being replaced as CEO of Apple by John Sculley (Matthew Modine) the movie had several plot holes.
Overall Jobs had the right intentions but unlike the real Steve Jobs, the wrong direction and drive. Not much was explained about several events in Steve’s life but rather assumed. Not to take anything away from Kutcher’s performance, who you could tell did a great job mimicking Steve’s every move from his walk and hand gestures to the way he spoke. But besides the resemblance to Jobs when he was younger, there were several moments in the film when you couldn’t tell whether you were watching Steve Jobs or Ashton Kutcher. As excited as I was to watch this, I left the theater incomplete and at a loss.