Late Apple co-founder and renowned innovator Steve Jobs oversaw the creation of much of the country’s most popular technology throughout the late 20th century. Since Jobs’ death in October 2011, several films covering his rise to fame have been released, including Steve Jobs (2015), iSteve (2013), and nine other documentaries. The movie I’m going to talk about today is Jobs, a biographical film released in 2013 starring Ashton Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, and Josh Gad, and directed by Joshua Michael Stern.

Jobs tells the story of Steve Jobs’ life from his time as a student at Reed College in 1974 up to the introduction of the iPod in 2001. The film covers the public introduction of Apple Computers, the Apple I and Apple II computers, Jobs’ involvement with the Macintosh project, Jobs being fired from Apple to starting the now-defunct company NeXT, his return to Apple, and the introduction of the iPod. With all these events covered – not to mention the film dipping into Steve Jobs’ personal life as well as the mention of Jobs’ time at Atari – you’d think this would be a decent movie. Jobs at best is not bad, but it’s not great either – it falls somewhere in between.

Ashton Kutcher gets the look of Steve Jobs down visually; however, the same can’t be said for his acting. His acting is OK for the most part. In some scenes, his acting delivers, but in others – those that require an emotional payoff – it doesn’t come off as expected. The other actors look good as their real life counterparts.

For the most part, the film is accurate. Unfortunately, many subjects are left out of the film, including the businessman’s conflicts with Microsoft, Jobs’ time at NeXT, and Jobs’ time at Disney and Pixar. I feel that the first two subjects should have been discussed in the film, as I feel that they are as important as the events that are covered in the film.

The film, while it is two hours long, could have included a few more scenes covering what Jobs was like after he was fired from Apple and his work at NeXT. Overall, Jobs is ambitious but doesn’t feel satisfying as a film.