Steve Jobs is perhaps one of the most esteemed – and controversial – figures of the 20th century. After all, this man is one of the geniuses responsible for the ascent of one of the world’s greatest tech companies.
The Steve Jobs movie, which was shown at a film festival, has had a good set haul of reviews so far, and was praised by Steve Wozniak, Steve Job’s fellow co-founder, for “getting it so right“. Based on a biography published by Walter Isaacson, and boasts a star-studded cast composed of director Danny Boyle, writer Aaron Sorkin, and actors Michael Fassbender and Seth Rogen.
Below are some of the reviews and what certain people have to say about the film:
David Ehrlich of Timeout praised Aaron Sorkin for producing such a well-written script.
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who’s written about America’s Great Flawed Men with such fire and hyperarticulate pathos that he’s threatened to become one himself, outdoes his work on The Social Network with an even sharper and more savage script about a tech visionary whose genius threatens to corrupt his ethics.
Steve Wozniak even felt like he was watching the real-life Steve Jobs on the movie screen.
When I caught up with him Wozniak told me that, unlike the Jobs biopic with Ashton Kutcher, this one is totally authentic. “I saw a rough cut and I felt like I was actually watching Steve Jobs and the others (including Rogen’s dead-on portrayal of Wozniak), not actors playing them, I give full credit to Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin for getting it so right,” he enthusiastically told me.
This was taken in an interview with Deadline.
Eric Kohn of Indiewire compared it to an equally good movie, Birdman.
A kind of “Birdman” for the tech sector…
He also praised the camerawork, the musical scores, and the lead actor’s performance.
Throughout these chapters, “Steve Jobs” zips along at an exciting clip. Alwin H. Küchler’s roaming camerawork melds nicely with Daniel Pemberton’s elaborate score, but Fassbender’s vivacious performance provides a critical anchor.
Benjamin Lee of the Guardian however, pointed out the movie’s knack of emphasizing almost everything taking place.
Sorkin’s heavily heightened sense of drama works best when the stakes are equally aligned but, despite the film constantly informing you of just how incredibly important everything all is, it’s disappointingly difficult to truly care about what’s taking place. The lack of public acknowledgement for certain team members (!!), the optional hard drive which isn’t really optional (!!!), the absence of a completed operating system for a product that’s about to be demo’d (!!!!), these are all treated with the same urgency as political crises in The West Wing.
Sasha Stone of The Wrap praised Fassbender’s portrayal, and Danny Boyle’s directing.
Boyle gives the film over to the writing and to the film’s lead performance, a stunning knockout by Michael Fassbender as Jobs. Boyle gives us breathtaking shots of Jobs in various stages of his professional life. He filmed the whole thing in three different theaters in San Francisco, and much of the action is confined to those spaces.