Exclusive ‘Jobs’ Trailer: See Ashton Kutcher Do Steve Jobs’ Greatest Hits

Ashton Kutcher in 'Jobs,' and the real Steve Jobs
Ashton Kutcher in 'Jobs,' and the real Steve Jobs

He started Apple Computers at age 21. He was forced out of the company at 30. He was brought back when he was 42, and he spent the last decade-and-a-half of his life revitalizing the corporation he founded and revolutionizing communication worldwide.

Steve Jobs' life had a lot of drama to try to pack into one movie, and making it feel real is a lot to ask of any actor. From the moment it was announced that Ashton Kutcher would be playing him in the biopic, "Jobs," it was obvious that the 35-year-old actor looked the part. But would the guy known for broad comedies like "Dude, Where's My Car?" have the dramatic chops to play one of the most influential figures in modern history?

Now you can judge for yourself. The long-awaited first trailer for "Jobs" just premiered exclusively here on Yahoo! Movies, and with it comes assurance that Ashton Kutcher indeed looks to do just fine in the role of Steve Jobs, the college dropout who went on to mastermind the computer you might be reading this on and the phone that might be in your pocket. You get glimpses of Kutcher's performance during the highs and lows over the course of five decades.

Watch Ashton Kutcher in the exclusive trailer for "Jobs":

In rather impressive downloading speed we see Steve chuck his post-high school studies, get laid, become mesmerized (and INSPIRED!) by his pal Steve Wozniak's (Josh Gad) toying with "a computer terminal that hooks up to the TV for the display" and co-found Apple, Inc., where he commences with "trying to start a war with IBM" ... an endeavor that involves enraging both early Apple investor Arthur Rock (the always welcome J.K. Simmons) and the rather ominous John Sculley (Matthew Modine), another investor who became CEO of the company after the board outed Jobs in 1983.

If the trailer is any indication, "Jobs" is a particularly abbreviated and fractured biopic; indeed, ten years go by in about a second and a half of screen time as Jobs is back at Apple seemingly right after he got kicked out of it. This impression is certainly in sync with the first round of reviews that came out of this year's Sundance Film Festival, the general consensus being that "Jobs" is a reasonably entertaining but ultimately too simplistic a portrait of a very complex man to truly resonate, a movie that "can't get a handle on how to portray its subject," according to IndieWire.

However, a lot of those reviews also praise Kutcher's performance, with Steve Jobs being a role into which the actor "disappears," according to CNET. Kutcher's fine work is certainly on display in the trailer as he impressively captures not only the passion (and notorious temper) of the remarkable entrepreneur but also his distinctive physical traits and speech patterns. Kutcher also seems to be aware of some of the meta-humor in the script and in turn has some fun with it; his "We've got to make the small things unforgettable" is especially amusing as it comes from the man who will soon become known for making our computers and gadgets ever so smaller (and smaller ...) in size.

Kutcher even brings a little more dramatic weight to Jobs' famous "Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels" speech from the classic Apple "Think Different" ads. The actor delivers this moving mantra to thinking and acting outside the box with grave conviction, whereas Jobs himself sounded a bit lighter and more playful (you can hear his original here).

Ultimately, the trailer does succeed in making us interested in finally seeing this already much-discussed film, which was originally supposed to hit theaters on April 19 in celebration of Apple's 37th anniversary. "Jobs" instead will be closing the summer with a release date of August 16.