YNMS: "Steve Jobs" & "Creed"
Wednesday, July 1, 2015 at 2:00PM Films celebrating their over achieving male protagonist are par for the course come fall movie season each year as Oscar competition heats up. But Steve Jobs and Adonis Creed both got trailers in the same 24 hours or so and I couldn't resist conjoining them since they both also star actors named "Michael". They make both an odd couple and perfect pair: Mind and Body. Michael Fassbender plays real life computer genius Steve Jobs for Oscar winner Danny Boyle; And Michael B Jordan, reuniting with his Fruitvale director Ryan Coogler, plays fictional Adonis Creed, the son of dead boxer Adonis, in an attempt to reboot the stalled Rocky series.
Yes No Maybe So on both trailers after the jump...
CREED
TRIVIA FUN: Rocky Balboa himself Sylvester Stallone is the old mentor so he's come full circle - Sly is Burgess Meredith now: He's the exact same age (69) that Burgess Meredith was when Burgess played his trainer in Rocky (1976). Isn't that crazy?
Yes - While Fruitvale Station might have been overpraised despite occasional novice clunkiness, it was still a strong debut and we want to see if Ryan Coogler will emerge from it as a potent confident director and Michael B Jordan is about the best muse he could hope from today's young actor landscape.
No - Seriously how many boxing movies can Hollywood make? It's by far their favorite sport. There are new boxing movies every year and this arrives just a few months after Southpaw. And how many Rocky Balboa films does one planet need?
Maybe So - Let's talk Oscar. The Rocky series, which hits film number seven with Creed, has received 11 nominations and 3 statues. Unfortunately for Creed all but one of those honors comes from the kick-off film, the original Best Picture winner Rocky (1976). Still... if anything can convince the Academy to take a curious look it'll be the combo of good box office and good reviews (if it gets both) and a major renovation job via completely fresh blood via its young director/actor duo.
STEVE JOBS
Yes - Michael Fassbender's casting never made sense to me until now. He looks great in a black turtleneck, he's never had trouble projecting a vivid mental interior, and even his voice sounds different. It's also frankly a relief to see the film looking so visual since movies that promise to be very dialogue driven often feel less fully realized in this way. (The cinematographer is Alwin H. Küchler who did wonderful and very dramatic work on Sunshine and Hanna previously). Seth Rogen and Jeff Daniels are excessively familiar faces at this point (seriously casting directors only ever seem to consider about 100 actors for all the roles in the universe and it might've been fun to see some underused character actors really popping up) but at least they appear to be sinking their teeth into their roles if these two minutes are any indication. It's a well cut trailer lending just the right amount of pompous drama before ending with a killer bit of mundanity -- a typed title rather than the overkill that a big title would've been after all that build-up.
I'm begging you to manage expectations!
Oh and Kate Winslet. Yay!
Maybe So - This will obviously be excessively compared to The Social Network whether or not that's fair and Boyle, who is often good at granting a film energy, does lacks the cool precision of a David Fincher. Case in point: Doesn't that pouring rain behind jobs remind you of lightning striking outside during a scary moment in an old horror movie? Laying it on with a trowel are we?!?
No - Remember how everyone turned on screenwriter Aaron Sorkin during The Newsroom and the sexist comments he made in that period? When he's not careful critics cry "insufferable." Hopefully this returns him to Social Network level poetry.
I think I'm in on both movies. You?
Reader Comments (36)
Ugh boxing. Ugh biopic. But still, those are a pair of good trailers. I do trust everyone involved with Steve Jobs, so hopes are high that it will be an entertaining and original slant on one of the most talked-about people of the last 100 years. The Rocky/Apollo relationship was one of the best things about the first three Rocky movies, so it will be interesting to see this almost revisionist tale of the Rocky story.
Thank Gosh not every director has Fincher's "cool precision', because not every project demands it.
@Gustavo Precisely.
In recent years especially Fincher's 'cool precision' has become eerily close to 'generic dank-coloured gloom'.
Yeah, okay for both. Sorkin is a big red flag for me but Boyle might actually be a good fit (that trailer was remarkably cut). I hope Jordan break forth in a big way for Creed.
I respect Fassbender, Winslet, Boyle and Sorkin as complex artists, so why does the "Steve Jobs" trailer feel so heavy-handed and melodramatic? Is it because they're giving the heroic biopic treatment to what could be a gentler, comedic story of a two-steps-forward-one-step-back start-up? I'm not asking for "Silicon Valley," but do we need to have Fassy shouting "Fix it!" and "She's not my daughter!"?
::fanning myself over second image from top::
Yes.
::Fassbender/Winslet::
Yes.
::Combined score::
YASS!
"Laying it on with a trowel" is kinda Sorkin's MO, isn't it?
Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a hardcore YES, especially after that trailer... although wasn't this the one that was supposed to be just three scenes? It sure seems like a lot more than that, and that was such a great idea. It will be interesting to see what Sorkin ended up doing to it.
Olivia de Havilland is 99 today!
Creed: yes on Michael B. Jordan's body. Nay on the rest
Steve Jobs: Yay on Fassy. Meh on the rest
Steve Jobs: I'm into it.
Creed: yaaaaawwwwwn
Hum. Jobs father was syrian. His mom was german - american. Couldnt they cast someone who looked slightly more mediterranean?????
I dont usually care of the actors look like the real life personalities they are playing but In this case it bothers me a bit.
Its like casting meryl streep to play Maria Callas.
Jobs eyes were dark brown and fassbender's fair blue. There are arabs and middle-easterns with blue eyes, its not as uncommon as americans think it is, but Jobs was not one of them.
I wasn't expecting to see so much of Winslet in the trailer! I'm definitely in!
Also, isnt it too soon for a Jobs biopic?
I am in for anything with Kate and she looks strong here.
I just hate that Michael b. Jordan, absolute doucheface and boxing movie reboot? God NO!!!
Never can believe frickin Rocky won best picture over NETWORK.
Fassbender and Winslet? Yes please on Jobs.
Its like casting meryl streep to play Maria Callas.
I see what you did there, Amanda, but I have two words for you: Francesca Johnson.
Fassy always gives good face.
Sorkin annoys the hell out of me, but THE SOCIAL NETWORK was a masterpiece script. Nevertheless, after 'Network', he failed miserably with 'The Newsroom' which was all kinds of awful, so...
I'm guessing I'm a Maybe So leaning on Yes if reviews are good.
Creed: No. Not for me.
Yes on Jobs. I enjoy most of Sorkin's work, to me he gets it right more than wrong and makes up for the drama, I do love some walk and talk scenes and this will have plenty. Plus Fassbender is always enjoyable even when the role is terrible.
No on Creed. My boxing quota this year is filled with Southpaw. And we don't need another Rocky or another remake of a franchise.
I think Fassbender looks and sounds atrocious in that trailer. It goes beyond him being so pale and European-looking and his Irish peeking through every other word. Jobs looked like your typical average geek, especially when he was young, and all I see with Fassbender is GQ model.
I'm so here for Michael B. Jordan becoming a bona fide movie star. He's easily got the charisma to pull in audiences like Denzel or Will Smith. It'll just take the right project to put him in the public consciousness. Creed looks like it could be it.
Phylicia Rashad plays Apollo's widow I'm completely in for Creed.
Not a fan of Danny Boyle. A complete no for Steve Jobs. However if they nominate Winslet again in supporting I will support the nomination sight unseen because I like her.
I'm a definite Yes on Creed. I really enjoyed Fruitvale Station and this was just a damn good trailer, so I'm in. I'll see Steven Jobs but I'm a maybe based on the trailer. I can't quite put my finger on it but something about the trailer didn't completely click for me.
The Sony hack mails about Jobs made me feel uneasy about the film. Someting felt very, very calculated about it and even though I know it's naive to think that's not always the case in Hollywood, it struck me as a project made only with prestige and awards in mind.
Kate, Fassbender's accent bothered me too.
I've felt iffy about Steve Jobs ever since Bale and Fincher backed out. Not a Boyle fan and didn't think Fassbender was right for this at all. Never the less I think this is a very strong trailer, strong enough to put some of those concerns (well, about Fassa anyway) to rest. I also am the only person on the planet, apparently, who liked most of The Newsroom, and hasn't soured on Sorkin generally yet. I'm a big Yes.
I really hope Creed is great. I like Jordan, think Coogler has tremendous potential, and love that Stallone is willing to use his most iconic part to help pass the torch to a new generation of filmmakers. I am a Yes for this too.
Sarah Snook! (in the STEVE JOBS trailer) It seems the rest of the world is going to start discovering what many (but certainly not most, as she has been in low-key movies) Australians know - that there is a new young actress emerging to take notice of.
YES! to both of these trailers.
I get a weird and bad stilted TV vibe from the Jobs film, and Fassbender is much too handsome to play that nerd.
I'm a yes on Steve Jobs. The film looks sharp and Kate Winslet looks great-- I'm thinking it's time to start considering her for Supporting Actress. Of course it won't be as good as The Social Network, but so what?
who cares about the accents if the emotion is there.... and if we didn't know where the actors were born no one would notice or talk about accents
murtada -- agreed. Fassbender didn't seem non-American to me at all in this trailer
I'm not just talking about accents. Look at a picture of jobs. Bone structure, nose, shape of his face.
You can clearly see some mediterranean-middle eastern features.
Look at Fassbender. You only see "Germanic"!!!!
And yes, far too handsome and sexually magnetic for the role.
I'm a heathen in this site when it comes to Fassbender, in that I don't get what the big deal is with his acting. He's certainly charismatic, but never quite convincing enough for me -- the only performance of his I have absolutely no issues with and unequivocally love is David in Prometheus. I'm aware that I'm in the minority there with that opinion though.
However, the trailer and movie has Kate Winslet, so I'm an immediate YES, yaaasss Queen and you betcha.
I loathe boxing movies so I'm an immediate NO for Creed, though I will happily ogle all the Michael B. Jordan shirtless pictures and gifs that will inevitably come out when the movie is released.
I will watch anything with Winslet or Fassbender. They get automatic yes's. Then together-opening weekend.
As for Creed, that photo of Michael B Jordan is, well, that's going to get a yes too.
The people complaining about Fassbender's look and accent are stretching here. Off the top of your head, name a movie star that could carry this project and looks more like Steve Jobs than Fassbender.
Nerds can be good looking, FYI. Why is this jarring?
I think Michael Fassbender certainly looks enough like Jobs to be convincing... If eye color is such a big deal, then give him contacts. But honestly I didn't even notice the eye color in this trailer. Jobs has always read as "white" to me anyway, even if he has Mediterranean heritage. Yes, Fassbender is *more* white, sure, but that seems like a minor quibble. And they already tried going for the perfect lookalike anyway with Ashton Kutcher, and how did that work out?
That said, who knows whether this will be good or not... Seems like a big question mark, though I'll obviously see it.