Steve Jobs

"2.75 stars out of 4"

I have one word for you: meh!

I'll be honest with you right off the bat. I had two incentives for seeing this movie: my crush on Michael Fassbender and the fact that it was written by Alan Sorking, who had written The Social Network, one of my all time favorite movies. But mostly the Michael Fassbender thing! I was kinda disappointed with both. But mostly with writing. And I'll get to that later.

After the first disastrous Jobs movie with Ashton Kutcher, I had high hopes for this new movie. I'll tell you one thing I told my boyfriend, about the first movie. Don't ever under any circumstance watch that movie. If somebody is making you, they want to torture. Cut all ties with that person.

I had high hopes for the new movie because you've got a great plot, a charismatic character, throw in a few brilliant actors, a great writer and director and what could possibly go wrong? The answer is I don't know but something hadn't quite clicked.

Did I like the tempo? Yes. Did I like the cinematography? Yes. Did I like the acting? You betcha. Did I like the screenplay? Well, I wasn't crazy about it. It reminded me too much of the Social Network. You may ask "why, you had liked that movie, why not this one?". The thing is, the audience look for something new. In the Social Network, Alan Sorkin had tried to make Mark Zuckerberg like less of an asshole that he was and had successfully made him look way more charismatic than what he was in real life. I'm not saying the Steve Jobs he had made wasn't charismatic, but I would contribute most of that to Michael Fassbender's brilliance. Alan Sorkin hadn't been able to make him look like less of an asshole as he had been with Zuckerberg! The Steve Jobs he created looked like a pushover, less charismatic than the one in real life, and his psycho analysis had failed, big time. He had just briefly touched on the subject, but he should've delved into it if he was going to talk about it at all.
Mid-movie, I was like "huh, this feels like writing up my thesis"! Let me elaborate. Whenever I would go to my advisor or start working on my projects, she would be like "narrow it down". I appreciate the fact that writers have to focus on limited subjects and can't cover everything. But comparing it with the Social Network that was more like taking a journey with Zuckerberg, this movie had concentrated on the 3 main product launches of Mac and NeXT and his relationship with his first daughter. As concentrated as it may seem, it felt scattered. I wish I had seen more of a "journey".

I can't imagine Michael Fassbender ever disappointing me, but this was no "Shame", no "12 Years a Slave", not his best work. Kate Winslet has always been one of my top 2-3 actresses. She has proven time and time again that she is good with accents. But what bugged me the most about her acting in this movie was her inconsistent Polish accent. Otherwise, she had good chemistry with Fassbender. Supporting actors were good but I wish they had spent more time on the role of Steve Wozniak or had introduced him more probably. I had to rely on my own knowledge and figure out who "Woz" was before they showed the garage scene.
One of my other all time favorite movies is the Slumdog Millionaire. As okay as this movie's directing was, Danny Boyle hadn't lived up to his potentials either. I still blame it on the screenplay!

As you can see us liking or disliking a movie depends heavily on our predispositions and expectations. If you ask me to remain neutral and tell me to forget about Social Network and Fassbender and everything, I would still tell you that there was something not very appealing about this movie.

Overall, the more time passes, the less I like the movie. But I think it was worth watching.
If you are stuck in choosing a movie to watch and haven't seen the Martian yet, go see that one!