MovieChat Forums > Steve Jobs (2015) Discussion > This movie was incredible.

This movie was incredible.


Across the board. Sorkin did it again. The script was incredible. Such a well written movie. Danny Boyle? Hit a grand slam. He took a great script and somehow made it even better with an impressive touch. Michael Fassbender, Winslet and Jeff Daniels? Remarkable. Seth Rogen was good too, I felt, but not on the level of the three previously mentioned.

This film was so unique to me in it's structure. The interweaving of the three different periods of the movie and how the film was so successful in putting many years of the life of Steve Jobs into three different segments.

Every year, my hope in the movie industry dies a little bit with the constant super hero and action movies taking over and controlling the market. But then, every year, there are about a group of 5-10 movies that rekindle my hope that cinema will not leave behind the talented people that remain capable of taking unbelievable scripts, and turning them into great movies.

Steve Jobs is one of the few movies to be released this year, that will keep my hope for cinema alive.

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Lol.

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May I ask what is so funny?

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What's so funny is that if you feel this film is giving you hope for the movie industry, then your standards are extremely low.

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Why not? It's a fantastic film. Great score, well written, well shot, well acted, Entertaining, funny, heartfelt. By what low standards are you measuring this film?

What did you find wrong with it?

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Once you said well written and entertaining, I stopped taking you serious. Those two things are exactly what's wrong with this movie.

The writing was extremely shallow and cookie cutter considering the subject matter. And entertaining it was not. Because of the poor writing that I just mentioned.

Why can't people face those facts?

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I see this movie is No. 14 this weekend. If you find it "extremely shallow and cookie cutter," you're certainly entitled this opinion. But other people are just as entitled to theirs and their opinion(s) are just as valid. I agree that calling it something very special may be a bit much, but which "facts" are important depend completely on the individual.

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[deleted]

??? WTH?

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you have no idea what your talking about.. "The public at large" laughable how condescending this statement from you is.. did you even see the film? no I doubt you did.

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Wow. Have you ever heard of a difference of opinion? Moron.

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[deleted]

your avatar is irritating

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LOL my reaction as well

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I don't have an issue with super hero/action movies but there should be a balance. Sometimes you don't want to make an emotional investment and you just need something light. I'm not a snob about any of it. I just don't want drama or art house to go away. It's getting worse every year.

It's ok to like more than one actor. :))

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Well we all take in movies differently. That's the beauty of it all, for the most part, film making is an art, and whether you like the film or not is personal preference. For the two hours I spent in the theater i was fully engaged with the film. Other people may not have been and that's fine, there is nothing wrong with that. I can understand why people may have disliked this film, it's not for everyone, just like the Martian isn't a film for everyone.

I don't mean to insult you so I hope you don't take this as me doing so, but is there a reason you are posting in almost every topic here about your dislike for the film? You are entitled to have an opinion on the film, you just seem to really hate this film, is there a reason?

I hope you have a good day.

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Incredible is a stretch. The movie had a lot of dialogue and the actors did a good job with all those lines. That's it, for me.

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What's wrong with a lot of dialogue?

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It has nothing to do with a lot and more to do with it being poorly written. But don't tell Sorkin fans that, they will ask for your head on a platter.

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Can anybody tell me why Sorkin has a following? I was a bit taken aback by the lack of substance in his writing. Jobs was a man of extraordinary complexity and this film made him out to be a cardboard-cutout robot who felt emotion only at the very end when it was convenient.

I read an article one time with Sorkin's writing tips. One of them was listening in on somebody else's conversation, taking one line, and then creating a new conversation from it. That explains a lot, actually. His writing feels very stitched together, taken from lots of different places without connecting them in a way that's interesting. Clearly not very good advice.

How do you like them apples?

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That's a very shallow interpretation of the film's lead (or how he was written). He showed emotion through-out the entire film, actually a large range of emotions. It would appear you only equate "Love" as an emotion... you know, there's anticipation, anger, disgust, resentment, joy... of which he displayed all of these, most of them several times throughout the film.

You know, I came out of this movie, full well expecting a lot of people would, by some miracle, chock it up as 'soul-less' or 'flat'. Knowing that some people simply wouldn't understand the structure of it, they wouldn't understand the study. Is that where you lye? Did something go over your head? Cause this film was pretty spectacularly written, by pretty much any standard you can hold it to.

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Good luck trying to explain the physics of this film to monkeys. Even if you make an irrefutable case, it won't make any sense to them. Unless it's a case of bananas.

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Yes, I only equate love as an emotion. Because that makes sense.

Let me clarify, since you failed to understand where I was coming from. There was no internal conflict. You're right, he did show some emotion - usually anger - and yet we saw no internal conflict from him until the very end. Angry people are often troubled by lots of things, right? I get that the film focused on the strained relationship with his daughter - but then the rest of the plot feels out of place, as if they're only there to take up time. There wasn't that thread in the story that tied everything together and gave it depth. Are you starting to get what I'm saying? There was no appreciation of the big picture in the script. If the film wanted to bring up all of these different topics, it could have related them to each other and created a flow to the story. But the result, instead, was like somebody read a biography on jobs and just created some conversations from every other chapter. It didn't help that 90% of the conversations were while the participants were walking from one room to another. How interesting! The script didn't intrigue me at all - sorry that hurts your feelings.

Cuing a character to feel emotion isn't great writing on its own like you imply it is - one has to substantiate it with internal conflict and inward personality, which this film failed to do. Obviously, I have had no problem connecting with characters in other films, but I didn't connect to this film and neither did lots of people, so something was clearly amiss with it no matter how you look at it.

Want to see a film that knows how to communicate personality and progress a story simply through dialog? Watch 12 Angry Men. That film makes Steve Jobs look like a slice of moldy bread. If you are still not getting my point after this, we might as well stop talking.

If you watched the film and found no flaws, you're likely the one who didn't fully understand it.

How do you like them apples?

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Agreed. I think the lack of internal conflict is what ultimately led to DiCaprio and Bale dropping out.

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No internal conflict? I suppose the subplots pertaining to his daughter and Jon Skully were not internal at all.

That shows how much insight you lack into this project. And that's fine. Not everyone can break down films and identify aspects of them but don't let ignorance be held as a virtue when you're trying to convince someone else of your point of view. There are definitely flaws in this script, make no doubt about that, but the strengths far outweigh their counterparts.

Also, DiCaprio and Bale dropped out due to primarily scheduling. Bale primarily since Fincher was originally attached to this project and they (Sony and Fincher) couldn't come to contractual terms with each other over budget. Dicaprio primarily due to scheduling and the production status of the film since it was in doubt for some time before Boyle signed on.

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No internal conflict? I suppose the subplots pertaining to his daughter and Jon Skully were not internal at all.


I'm not sure that you know what "internal" means.

That shows how much insight you lack into this project.


No one told me there'd be homework for this movie. I never got the primer.


And that's fine. Not everyone can break down films and identify aspects of them


And where's your breakdown?

but don't let ignorance be held as a virtue when you're trying to convince someone else of your point of view.


Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?


There are definitely flaws in this script, make no doubt about that, but the strengths far outweigh their counterparts.


And you list NONE. You don't even insinuate one.

The writing in Steve Jobs was pretty and the actors did a great job with the words they were given. But it was nice wrapping paper on an empty box. The entire movie hammers us over the head with Steve Jobs' relentless pursuit of creating this life-altering technology that will change the future. We don't know why, we just know that he wants that and has sacrificed all of his relationships to achieve this end. Now feel free to enlighten me because I could have completely missed it but, at what point does Steve Jobs have any internal conflict? Even at the end when he had the opportunity to give credit to the Apple II team, he still doesn't and that's after at least the second time he's confronted by Steve Wozniak. The closest thing to a change is when at some point that we don't see, he accepts that Lisa is his daughter but still, where was the conflict? He's the same at the beginning as he is at the end and he vehemently defends and justifies every position he took in 1984 to 1998. (Again, if I missed something then that's something that can be discussed.)

One movie I'll compare this to is last year's Whiplash. The themes were in many regards similar, only Whiplash committed to its theme and Steve Jobs was all over the place. In Whiplash, we see, for example, Andrew attempting to connect as a human being and realizing that there is no room for relationships that don't serve that end. We see those fork-in-the-road decisions he makes when Fletcher presents him with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We see Andrew choose between taking the path of what he sees as mediocrity versus greatness. And all within the context of a narrative (which Steve Jobs lacks). With Steve Jobs, we only get that his vision for Apple is the only thing that matters with no context. He doesn't strive to be the next great inventor (even his Beatles' "John" comparison is initiated by Wozniak) nor is there some big choice he has to make. Nope. Just some half-assed resolution with his daughter who must be a saint since their relationship is exclusively determined by Steve and not Lisa.

I'm not saying your opinions are wrong or dumb or anything of the sort. I'm saying they're completely unsubstantiated. We can interpret elements of film differently. Fine. But you had the gall to attack someone's ability to critique film without ever providing a critique yourself. Really, it's no different than the original poster's fluffy opinions, "Sorkin did it again. The script was incredible," (how?) and "Danny Boyle? Hit a grand slam. He took a great script and somehow made it even better with an impressive touch," (how so?) or "The interweaving of the three different periods of the movie and how the film was so successful in putting many years of the life of Steve Jobs into three different segments," (what's the significance?) There's nothing to interpret, discuss, or debate; they're just opinions stated as fact. It's "incredible" just because this person says it was incredible.

Please.

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There was no internal conflict


BullFúckingShít. What about the internal conflict during the standoff with the Pepsi CEO? Do you not know how to read faces?? You're obviously on the aspergers spectrum if you couldn't read the internal conflict on Fass's face through this whole thing. You didn't see the movie. You haven't named one scene in detail.

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haha that's funny cause it would seem the one with Aspergers would be Jobs

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Haha you didn't see the movie.

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Let me clarify, since you failed to understand where I was coming from. There was no internal conflict. You're right, he did show some emotion - usually anger - and yet we saw no internal conflict from him until the very end. Angry people are often troubled by lots of things, right?


In the first act alone he was troubled by the demo's failure, Kottke sodomizing him in Time, the board trying to axe the Super Bowl ad, Woz's annoying request, the exit signs, Chrissann's demands and Lisa's presence.

He was dealing with a tempest, internally, in the immediate run-up to an event where he was convinced he was about to change the world.

The Jobs character is better developed in the first ten minutes of this film than most great characters are developed in the whole of their respective films. It's brilliant screenwriting.

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Honestly, HAVE you seen this film? Do you have aspergerss? Because what you're saying makes absolutely no sense, in the context of the film. It's like you're talking about a different film.

From the very FIRST SCENE he is internally conflicted, and it's as obvious as *beep* paint on the walls. You can almost god damn feel his conflict physically as it leads up to his presentation. When I was talking about structure, I was referring to the odd similarities the movie's structure has to the 3 versions of a song that her daughter was talking about with him on the cat-walk (for some reason the title escapes me).

"90% of the conversations were while the participants were walking from one room to another" *beep* argument, and also unwarranted hyperbole. The film is set in theaters and conference halls. That's what people do in these places.. they walk from one place to another, a lot. Almost all of the important scenes take place on a stage, or in a dressing room, or directly back-stage. The walking was appropriately scattered throughout, you make it sounds like that's all anyone ever did.

GTFO and actually watch the film you pretentious *beep*

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I just love how you keep saying "poorly written" and then you stop there.

You seem to be unable to give a proper written explanation of why you believe this movie was "poorly written".

You do see the incredible irony there don't you?

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Not much of an explanation needed other than it was very shallow and generic. The fast dialogue was nothing more than a trick to make you think it was intelligent and deep.

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I want your head on a platter, lol

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Don't know about incredible. To each his own, but the one thing I would disagree with is your praise for Boyle. I thought he was wasted here. Don't get me wrong, the direction was perfectly apt given the structure of the film, but that structure was undeniably limiting. Bold certainly, but limiting. I admire Sorkin for eschewing the "cradle to grave" bio tendency, but this definitely would've been better as a stage play. You get these actors to do a live performance of this and I think it would be absolutely electrifying. But if you're going to have Danny Boyle directing a movie, you should fully unleash him. I just don't think that was the case here.

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I went into this movie expecting it to be a repeat of "Jobs." I was pleasantly surprised at the greatness of this film.
Some of the lines in the movie are worth the price alone, while the complexities of human behavior somewhat exposed by actions made it quite magnificent.
Loved it.

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Michael Fassbender did an incredible job. Kate Winslet couldn't decide if she was Polish or not, and Jeff Daniels was convincing. Sorkin's writing was below average and went for cheap sentimentality. It was a disappointing movie with excellent acting and good directing. The screenplay was the very weak link.

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This film was so unique to me in it's structure.

Exactly. That's the main reason why I love this movie, as well as how Danny Boyle gives each act a unique style. Right now, Steve Jobs is my top choice for Best Picture.

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