I know that you have been waiting with bated breath for the first trailer for the Steve Jobs biopic Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher as the man in the turtleneck. I know that you, like me, don’t see where this could possibly go wrong. I know also that you think that the title Jobs has absolutely no chance of being used against the film, should it prove to be a wash-out. So here we go. The first trailer for Jobs.
Well, it’s a movie about Steve Jobs. That much can at least be said for it. We are introduced to our hero as he wanders barefoot over the campus of Reed College and his friends remark candidly ‘I can’t believe you dropped out!’ We then follow the hirsute-adorned and fashionably turtlenecked genius as he builds, leaves and then returns to Apple Computers, facing down corporate fat cats and anti-visionaries along the way. He’s a rebel, man. He’s got a Macklemore soundtrack.
Jobs premiered at Sundance on closing night and the reception there was very mixed. If this trailer is any indication, I can’t imagine why. Kutcher’s lines are delivered as though he’s reading them off a cue card and the trailer seems to be made up of largely predictable biopic moments in the rise and fall of a genius/jerk/hero. The cast beyond Kutcher is spectacular, though, with Dermot Mulroney, Lukas Haas, James Woods, Leslet Ann Warren, Matthew Modine, Josh Gad and J.K. Simmons among others.
In the end, the trailer makes Jobs look like The Social Network-lite. It even has the build-up from the ‘start-up in a garage’ to multi-national corporation and, I assume, all the friends that Jobs loses in order to fulfill his dream of creating streamlined products that will someday enslave us all.
I guess we’ll know just how much merit Jobs has when the film hits theatres in August. Until then you can check out the trailer below, and if you disagree with my cynicism, please let me know.
