Steve Jobs (2015)

** ½ out of ****

Just a couple of years ago there was a film just called “Jobs” (2013) with Ashton Kuchar in the seminal role. That film tried to tell the story of Steve Jobs, from his origins working in a garage of a computer motherboard with Steve Wozniak through to the introduction of the iPod. I didn't think it was a particularly good movie, but it told a tale that was interesting enough to watch, and Kuchar made Jobs at least a somewhat sympathetic character despite his flaws.

“Steve Jobs” does none of the same things. It isn't interested in telling the story of the man's life, it simply has one message – Steve Jobs was a son of a bitch. I understand that to some degree that was true, but Michael Fassbender plays Jobs as one of the most unsympathetic characters I've ever seen in a biopic. This Jobs cares absolutely nothing about the mother of his daughter, denies ad nauseum that the child is even his, and like a spoiled brat is totally willing to stomp all over anyone that denies him from getting anything that he wants. They play Jobs as a tyrant, plain and simple. It is impossible to like the person the film portrays.

Now that's not to suggest that there's nothing to see here. “Steve Jobs” is a pretty decent film and has some tremendous sequences. In particular the series of scenes showing how Jobs was originally removed from the company by CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) is fascinating. The dynamic between Jobs and Wozniak (Seth Rogan) is equally interesting, despite the fact that almost every scene takes place after Woz was a key figure at Apple. And in spite of the loathing you feel for Jobs during them, the scenes showing him with his daughter over a 10 year stretch are interesting in a painful way.

Fassbender does a very solid job with what he has, but I feel like the script was simply not the best. Jobs was a driven and flawed man, but I sincerely doubt he was a sonofabitch-bastard every single day of his life, which this film would have you believe. It portrays his genius as highly manipulative and solely business-based, and doesn't even try to examine his unique ability to recognize what people wanted before it was something anyone had even dreamed of.

I'm not suggesting that they should have done a warm-and-fuzzy Steve Jobs, but this one is a guy that you just can't relate to. If Fassbender's Jobs was hit by a bus walking down the street you'd have been happy to see him pushing up daisies. It's hard to make a movie centered around someone you detest and keep it interesting.