Let's Review: Real Steel

It occurred to me recently that movie studios are starting to run out of ideas. This thought happened when I saw the trailer for Battleship and realized that Robot Chicken’s prediction about films about board games was going to be a new fad. I realize that their prediction was meant to be a skit joke and not to be taken seriously, but as I hear about more and more films coming out soon I worry that it might no longer be a joke. That being said, how did Rock’em Sock’em Robots the movie live up to my expectations? Let’s review Real Steel.

The Negative

There are two instances in the film where we transition forward with a montage. Montages are a necessary and key component in film story telling. It helps us transition through a large amount of time by quickly showing the progression of our characters through the use of a series of short scenes. The two montages I am talking about are too brief. We go from a father and son who are just barely getting along--- {minute montage later}---suddenly they are a functioning team and are quickly on their way to the top becoming boxing champions. One of the best parts of this film is the slowly building relationship between Hugh Jackman’s character and the little kid, it’s a shame that the movie mostly skips over the part where they slightly start to bond and show signs of respect for one another.

The origin of the robot Atom is notable left out of the story. It’s not a big problem I have with the film, but at the same time I have to wonder where this story plot point came from. I understand that Atom was a 2^nd generation robot and his only previous function was to be a sparring partner, but if Atom does have a rare Shadow Function (which plays a very significant part in the plot) why wasn’t it taken from his body when he was left in the dumpster? Like I said it’s not a big problem I have, I’m just wondering where this miracle robot actually came from.

The Positive

I loved this film. I went into the movie theater not expecting much (come on, the premise was boxing robots), but I found myself significantly surprised by how much I was actually enjoying the film. What really carries the film is the relationship between Hugh Jackman’s character Charlie and Dakota Goyo’s character Max.

Charlie is one of the most despicable characters I have ever seen, and yet throughout the film we slowly learn why he is the way he is. Charlie is a man who has taken to many punches and is fairly down and out. He lives for the moment because it’s the only thrill he can get anymore. Max on the other hand, has horrible feelings of abandonment, but is doing his best to live in his father’s world simply because he is looking for someone to care about him. It’s this key relationship that makes the whole movie worthwhile.

That being said, the other thing that makes this movie worth it is the robot boxing matches. These fight scenes got my heart racing. The matches were well choreographed and felt oddly organic for being between two robots. This is actually where the film kept throwing me for a loop. Every time I expected a fight would go one way, a new development happened and the fight suddenly switched gears. Rest assured if you are only going to go see this film for the fighting robots, you won’t be disappointed. This is fighting robots done right.

In Conclusion

This film really surprised me. I truly wasn’t expecting much from boxing robots, but found a thoroughly well written story with great characters and well thought out fight sequences. This film has effectively become one of my favorite movies of this year. If you like fighting robots, but want a little more substance behind it, then this is the film for you. 4.5 out of 5.