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Oscar Watch: 'Jobs' trailer thankfully does not suck

Posted Monday, June 24, 2013 at 3:36 PM Central

by John Couture

I'm a man torn. On the one side, I'm a complete Apple fan boy. I remember waiting in line to purchase the first iPhone. On the other side, I really don't care for Ashton Kutcher.

It's not that Ashton ever did anything personally to me or kicked my dog one day while we were out for a walk. There's just something about the actor that has always rubbed me the wrong way.

So, imagine my anxiety when it was announced that Ashton would be playing Steve Jobs in a bio-pic about the innovative co-founder of Apple. Sure, I can sort of see a resemblance, but would he be able to do a convincing job at bringing such an enigmatic person to life on the big screen?

Well, the answer thus far after watching the first trailer for the film is that he's not bad. Of course, I still think it's far from an Oscar-caliber performance, but apparently that's one of the reasons why Ashton Kutcher took the role to begin with.

I think the trailer desperately wants Jobs to be the next The Social Network, but sadly it's pretty apparently from the trailer that it doesn't have Aaron Sorkin's magical writing touch. No, that will come a bit later when Sony actually has Aaron Sorkin write their version of Steve Jobs' life.

So while it might not lead to the mythical Oscar that Ashton Kutcher wants, the good news is that he seems to be believable in the role. It's always tough to take on such a public figure as everyone will already have a preconceived notion of what that character is.

Does the film take creative license? I would think that any Steve Jobs film that doesn't have Bill Gates in it would tell you something right there. But you don't have to take my word for it. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak saw the first scene released back in January and took small umbrage with the details.

Jobs (notice the slight name change from jOBS) opens on August 16. What do you think? Will Ashton hear his name when Oscar nominations are handed out? We remain unconvinced.