Ashton Kutcher's "Jobs" Focuses on The Right Version of Steve Jobs at the Wrong Time

I just got back from seeing Jobs, the movie about Steve Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher.  Let me start off by saying Ashton is probably the best fake Steve Jobs ever (no offense Dan Lyons).  Ashton clearly did his homework in terms of getting Jobs’ mannerisms and style down pat. Everything from walking, talking, to the hand motions and dramatic pauses that we all knew and loved about Steve he was able to emulate.  He really does look like him too, which is pretty neat.

I might even goes as far to say that Ashton kind of had his own mini reality distortion field going throughout the movie.

The movie starts off with a series of different scenes that take you up until the point where the company finally starts to really get going.  The timeline is really all over the place in the beginning, which kind of leaves you wanting more, but once it settles in to the main storyline it takes stride.  The acting in the movie was great, all of the actors were excellent and were frighteningly similar looking to the people they were playing.

While I did like the movie, it does have its problems from a factual standpoint.  The biggest issue I had with it was that it portrays the right “version” of Steve Jobs at the wrong time.  The movie takes place in the first half of his career: it starts at the beginning of Apple and ends right when Jobs comes back to Apple after he was ousted years earlier.  I think Woz stated the overall problem with movie perfectly in a Facebook comment:

The movie ends where the Jobs we love starts, when he returned. And the company valuation never exceeded that of the Apple ][ days until the iPod. Jobs’ repeated failures in execution are not shown.

I understand why they choose to start the movie from the beginning of Apple, but I think it might have been better to start from the triumphant return of Steve to Apple and his journey in turning the company around.  That’s the Steve Jobs most people fell in love with.

Nonetheless, was it entertaining and fun to watch? I thought so. Ashton really nailed the role, so much so that I thought it was kind of scary at times.  Would I recommend you go see it?  Sure.

Did you see Jobs? What did you think?