The long in-development Steve Jobs movie is finally here after a long road through development hell to the big-screen. Academy Award winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) directs the biopic from a screenplay written by Aaron Sorkin (Moneyball, A Few Good Men) about the co-founder of Apple, who helped to lead a technological revolution in the late 20th century.

Boyle directs an all-star cast starring Michael Fassbender in the title role, along with standouts Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels, and Seth Rogen. Throw the lack of physical resemblance aside, Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, X-Men: Days of Future Past) owns the screen, like Jobs conducting one of his famed product launches. The entire cast is populated with acclaimed actors and it would not be surprising to see him and Winslet recognized at award time. Winslet gives a monumental performance as Jobs’ confidante Joanne Huffman, the only person brave enough to stand up to the abusive Jobs.

Sorkin scripts the movie with a unique variation on the three act structure. The result is that Steve Jobs feels more akin to a play, then the type of experience that you might expect to get at your local cineplex. Boyle attempts to add some flair by giving each time period a corresponding signature visual style by shooting the various time periods in three distinct formats including 16mm, 35mm, and digital. This movie is essentially a backstage drama, however don’t expect the type of visual creativity of a movie like Birdman, to support the antagonistic behind-the-scenes banter.

The film takes place during three historic product launches which shaped the course of Jobs’ career. The 1984 Macintosh launch, the 1988 NEXT launch, and finally his triumphant launch of the iMac in 1998, which would transform home computing forever. Each product launch is filled with inherent programming bugs, tension, along with human emotions and tempers, which are always at the brink of eruption.

Steve Jobs opens with video footage of author Arthur C. Clarke accurately predicting the future, where every person will own their own personal computer. Jobs continually boasts throughout the film that his invention is “one of the two most important inventions of the 20th century” because computers can act as “bicycles for the mind.” However, the actual development and discovery of the new technology is often glossed over. But the characters do argue over it a lot. Which is as fulfilling as characters in an action movie talking about a car chase that they were just in, instead of simply showing it.

In Sorkin’s The Social Network, he was able to successfully draw the line between Mark Zuckerberg’s flaws, his inability to communicate and his innate loneliness, and his creation that “changed the world.” The last thing Steve Jobs should be is a repeat of Sorkin’s former works. However there is a glaring absence of a “hero” for the audience to root for. Similar to how Andrew Garfield’s Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network, took a stand against the meglomaniac in that film. Jobs’ daughter represents that role in this movie, but it simply does not hold the same impact of an adult who actually has agency in the situation. If viewers are forced to spend two hours with an unlikeable lead, the character needs to either experience character development, experience tragedy, or there should be a victory for those that he hurt the most.

Sorkin and Boyle spend the length of the movie convincing you that Jobs is a villain…and then Jobs wins. (That shouldn’t be a spoiler if you are reading this review on an Apple laptop or iPhone.) Almost from the first frame there’s a concerted effort to show that Jobs was intense, dry-witted, cut-throat, manipulative, and unneccesarily vindictive to those around him. They drill home how rotten of a person Jobs was endlessly. So much so, that it may ultimately make you wonder why he is deserving of a movie in the first place. It would seem that a much more compelling and tension-filled film could have been made from the perspective of his Apple workers. There are plenty of “good guys”, like Steve Wozniak, Joanna Huffman, or Andy Hertzfeld, whose perspective could have created a story with a firm beginning, middle, and end.

Steve Jobs is a valiant attempt to shake up the conventional biopic formula. However in doing so, the movie opens itself up to a whole new set of issues. Fans of Sorkin’s witty dialogue most likely will not be disappointed, as all the actors handle the material with precision. Get ready to be mesmorized by Fassbender’s “Reality Distortion Field” in an outstanding performance, as he is absolutely magnetic to watch transform into Jobs.

Steve Jobs suffers from an overall lack of a focused story and by passing over elements of Jobs’ life that may have inspired interest from the casual viewer. Even if its a sidenote, how he started Pixar or simply where the ideas for new technology came from, would not seem trivial to the average moviegoer. Steve Jobs is not a sub-par film, however it is a chore to spend two hours with such an unlikeable character, whose actual story is never told in the film’s running time. It’s a credit to the filmmakers that you literally feel like a burnt out Jobs employee by the end of the movie’s runtime. However, it’s hard to recommend this film, unless you are fanatical about Fassbender, Sorkin, or the scandalous details of Jobs’ life, because it simply is not much fun. Think differently.