As technology progresses, we seem to be in the age of movies telling the story of each device or software and trying to make it an epic adventure. We recently got the story about how Tetris came to be, and now it’s time for Blackberry – the ill fated smart phone that helped launch the current smart devices we all carry around with us today. But unlike some of the other stories we’ve seen so far, Blackberry just seems to be missing an important element – interest.
The Blackberry phone’s story, no doubt has it’s ups and downs. But the movie seems to tell the story like the phone and the company behind it was trying to make a comeback, but still is missing the mark. It highlights completely unlikeable characters throughout the whole film. It shows pivitol moments that could have been leveraged for interest, instead squandered or not utilized for story telling. Basically, the movie brings the a slow and uninteresting story to the screen and it will appeal only to people who still want the Blackberry devices today.
The movie leaves you questioning why it was made? What is the point of the movie? And most of all, how many more insufferable tech origin stories of (too) recent history are we going to be forced to sit through?
While the story of how Blackberry came to be may be interesting to some, the presentation in the film just isn’t enough to grab and keep your attention. Yes, the story of the first smart phone is one that can show just where technology started and how it got to the point it is today. But the movie is one that makes you wonder why we need another movie about another piece of technology that isn’t even that old. There seems to be a grain of interesting story but not enough for a two hour movie and at times the movie drags and makes you forget why you even put it on.
Blackberry will be in theaters on May 12th.
Overall Rating:
About Blackberry:
Directed by (and co-starring) Matt Johnson (The Dirties, Operation Avalanche), the film tells the story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone, and stars an ensemble cast including Jay Baruchel (This Is The End, Knocked Up), Glenn Howerton (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, A.P. Bio), Cary Elwes (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Saw), Saul Rubinek (Hunters, True Romance), Rich Sommer (The Devil Wears Prada, Mad Men), Martin Donovan (Tenet, Big Little Lies), and Michael Ironside (Total Recall, Scanners).
Johnson and co-writer Matthew Miller adapted the screenplay from the #1 National Bestseller “Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry,” written by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff.