Pokematic Reviews "Jobs;" the Steve Jobs movie with Ashton Kutcher

If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...why Pokematic. "Hi."

OK let me make one thing known, I do not like Apple. I can appreciate what they did for the computer, music, cell phone, and tablet world, but it's an appreciation like that of Justin Bieber's story of "guy uploads videos to youtube, gets discovered, and becomes super famous." But back to apple. I don't like their products; I think they are overpriced for what you get, and as an engineer, there is just WAY too many programs that either don't work on with the Mac OS or just don't work as well as they would if ran on a Windows based machine. I have some friends with MacBooks and they constantly have to have a windows virtual machine open so they can get their work done. I've heard that they are better for editing video, music, and pictures, and I accept that, but in general, I feel your just better off with a Windows PC or android device. Plus there's the iCult, and I know it's not right to judge a product by it's fanboys and fangirls, but when there are legitimate documentaries on what drives obsessive apple fans, well then there's something to be suspicious about. I bring this up so that you know this isn't going to be an "oh it's so amazing to see a movie about our wonderful leader Steve Jobs" type of review.

OK so what did I think of Jobs? Well... I didn't care for it. Before I explain why, let me start out with the good. For starters, Ashton did a great job as Steve. Really. From what I know about Steve Jobs's personality, and another great story of the computer movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, Ashton nailed Steve. Another aspect, set design, casting, make-up, costume, all those details, great. It really looked like the time periods based on what I've seen in pictures and video from that time period because I was not born until 1993. From the story that they wished to tell, they did a great job cutting it together. Like really well. From a technical standpoint, it's great.

"Well if it's so great, why didn't you like it?" Well that really comes down to the story that they told. Here's the thing, Steve Jobs was not a nice guy. Since he was rich, we refer to him as "eccentric." But the bottom line is, he wasn't a nice guy. I'm not saying the movie tried to depict him as such, there were at least 2 times when they showed him parking in the handicap spot at Apple and how he screwed Woz on the breakout deal with Atari, but they still want to make him the hero, even at the expense of historical accuracy. A prime example of this is when they showed Microsoft stealing the Graphical User Interface. In the movie, they make it look like Apple came up with that idea and that Microsoft stole "their" idea. However, they forget to include that Apple stole the Graphical User Interface from Xerox. Yeah, that little bit of history would go against the whole "Steve Jobs was a visionary" narrative. That's the biggest neglected historical detail. I don't know of other neglected details, but I'm sure they're in there. There was also a dialogue between Steve and the board about charging to much for Lisa and how their overcharging caused Lisa to fail. Whether that happened or not, I don't know, but it made me cringe and chuckle. See the "why I don't like apple paragraph" for an explanation. It just made me say "yeah, let's see if you're saying that in 25 years."

"Well that's just two details, you can't be so shallow that that ruined the movie for you." True, minor historical inaccuracies didn't ruin the movie for me. What did ruin it though, was how much it focused on Steve Jobs and how little it focused on the computers. I know, "but it's a bio pic about the man behind Apple, not a bio pic about Apple." I know, but remember how I said I don't like Apple; well I don't really care about Steve Jobs. I appreciate what he did, but I don't like the guy. I love Pirates of Silicon Valley, primarily because it is about the computers and the companies. The men behind them are there, but it's still primarily about the computers and the companies. However, Jobs is about Steve and the computers and companies are just kind of there. The first time we actually see technology, besides that iPod reveal at the beginning, is 15 minutes into the movie when Steve is tasked with making Break Out work at Atari. There's a good 3 minute scene of Steve just tripping on acid and ranting about his life and the world. I don't care about that, I just want to see computers. When they did get to the technology, it was still "all about Steve, yeah there's computers, but lets look at Steve." In fact for a movie about a computer company, I didn't see as many computers as I expected. Pirates took a "lets tell a story about Apple and Microsoft and include Steve, Woz, and Bill because you couldn't tell the story without them" approach. Jobs took a "lets tell a story about Steve jobs and include the computers because you couldn't tell the story without them approach." This really shows when Woz left Apple. He tells Steve "I'm leaving Apple, it's not the same. It used to be about making computers, but now it's just about you fueling your ego," or something to that extent. That was never really flushed out in the movie. Woz's explanation does a good job at explaining why he's leaving, but I would have rather seen it happen instead of just hearing it.

So here's the bottom line. I just didn't like it. If you want to hear a story about Steve Jobs, then you'll likely enjoy Jobs. I would rather have more emphasis on the computers and what was happening in the world of computers, but that's just me. They talked about what IBM was doing, but never went into detail. They mentioned the Microsoft GUI fiasco, but never went into detail. They mentioned the guy that sold all his shares in apple back when they were struggling, but never explained why. Even with the Atari thing, they just made it look like Steve outright lied to how much they were getting paid. What really happened is that Steve split the base price for making it work with Woz but didn't tell him about the bonus he got for each additional chip he didn't use. I guess that just would have been to much technology for a movie about Steve Jobs. If you want a movie that just wants to tell the story of Steve Jobs, you'll like Jobs. However, if you want a movie that focuses on the computers and companies, just watch Pirates of Silicon Valley. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

PS: I don't count "the iPod reveal" as technology since it's just Steve doing his "imagine, a device that holds 1000 songs, and it fits right in your pocket, well here it is, the iPod." No details on the development, no details on the inspiration, just "here it is."