Real Steel
Grade: B+
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Real Steel is a surprise in that it's actually not too bad a movie. One might go as far as to say it's good. The trailers and premise of the movie instantly brings to mind a certain childhood game but the execution of the movie is something far from that and much closer to "Rocky."
Real Steel takes place in the near-future where robot boxing has replaced human boxing as a battle sport, human boxing proving to be too tame and not violent enough for an increasingly entertainment starved audience. Robot boxing is a dominating sport around the country between "illegal" fights in shady areas and the official fights being carried out by the World Robotic Boxing league (analogous to the World Boxing organizations of today) the current champ being a robot called "Zeus" who is undefeated and carries many titles.
Our protagonist is Charlie, played by Hugh Jackman, a former human league boxing champion who now is resorting to scraping up whatever machine he can and trying to eke out a living by fighting in fairs and underground matches, usually having to skip out on bets and financial obligations, chief of which being one that has put his long-time friend Bailey's (Evangeline Lilly) boxing/gym in near financial ruin. To make matters worse Charlie's found out his illegitimate son, Max, is now his after the mother's death. Charlie arranges for Max's maternal aunt to take custody of the child in three months following her and her husband's European vacation.
Charlie is every bit of the thought of the dead-beat dad who wants nothing to do with his kid, the kid like all Hollywood kids is precocious and world-wise and is able to verbally spar with his loser father. After ruining yet another robot Charlie and Max make their way to a junk-yard and eventually recover a decade old "sparring robot" that Max wants to enlist into fights and to do so he wants Charlie to use his old boxing techniques to help the sparring bot to do what it's not designed to, fight in real matches.
What begins here is sort of a cross between "Rocky" and and those movies where the washed-up sports legend uses new experiences to turn his life around and regain his former glory. The Robots in this movie have no meaningful AI they're simply controlled by shadow boxing, remote or verbal command and the movie only flirts with the idea that our hero bot has some form sentience without really ever exploring the idea. Thankfully.
Instead the robot fighting is all a means to watch the hero character, Charlie, grow from a washed up former champion boxer thousands of dollars behind in his debts to those close to him, a horrible father into becoming something much more. Max, though he sufferers from many of the tropes common to movie kids, actually offers a lot too in helping his father grow.
The SFX in the movie is good and unlike the Transformer movies the fights between the robots is understandable and exciting to watch, all of the robots have distinct looks, movements, and mannerisms so it's like watching two different objects fight rather than a mass of metal.
In short, a fun, good, movie that's well worth seeing.
