This evening, several friends and I went to see the Jobs movie starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs. After seeing the trailer for the movie, my hopes lessened since the trailer was overdramatic and quite over the top.

The movie proved to be fairly enjoyable despite its significant weaknesses. Ashton Kutcher’s portrayal of Steve Jobs was excellent and his attention to detail was seen throughout. Overall, the film did a good job of displaying both the positive and negative aspects of Jobs without locking him to one particular side. With my limited experience of Silicon Valley, the film’s locations seemed quite accurate and believable. Also, I think the film did a good job of including many of the relevant and interesting parts of Steve’s exile and return to Apple.

Throughout the two hours and two minutes, the drama did not stop. Every scene was either very dramatic or making a strong point about Steve’s life and personality. There weren’t any scenes which slowed down and developed the character of Steve in the movie. Cramming decades of Steve’s life into this film had the negative effect of making everything too poignant and straight-forward. Lastly, I found the musical choices for the movie of poor taste. Like the trailer, the songs were often too mainstream or well known to add interest or character to the film. The instrumental score matched the film’s overdramatic feel and pace.

If you are interested in Steve Jobs or the history of Apple, Jobs is certainly worth watching. However, I would first recommend Walter Isaacson’s biography to get a deeper and more interesting look at Jobs’ life and career. My favorite part of this biography are the details about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs’ last conversation together about their respective careers.