Real Steel [M]

The sport of boxing has gone high tech with robots fighting each other to the death rather than humans and Charlie Kenton, a washed-up boxer turned robot-boxing promoter, has hit rock bottom with debts owing left, right, and centre. Out of desperation for cash, he teams up with his estranged son Max and, against all odds, gets one last chance at a comeback when Max discovers a weak, but sparky and fast little robot named Atom in a junkyard. Through courage, determination, strategy, and a little bit of luck, the ragtag team rise up from the gutter and make it to the big leagues, bringing everyone up along with them. 

Despite the fact that it’s Hugh Jackman, whom I just love, and a film about the little robot that could, I wasn’t really all that keen to see Real Steel when it first came out, neither at cinemas nor on DVD. But I passed it on the wall at work and thought “why not”? I have to say that I’m pleasantly surprised; this movie is a wonderfully balanced action film and a great melting pot for all these different genres: action, science fiction, and there is even family, romance, drama, and comedy in there. It’s got absolutely everything and it was a really lovely story to boot. 

The sport of boxing has gone high tech with robots fighting each other to the death rather than humans and Charlie Kenton, a washed-up boxer turned robot-boxing promoter, has hit rock bottom with debts owing left, right, and centre. Out of desperation for cash, he teams up with his estranged son Max and, against all odds, gets one last chance at a comeback when Max discovers a weak, but sparky and fast little robot named Atom in a junkyard. Through courage, determination, strategy, and a little bit of luck, the ragtag team rise up from the gutter and make it to the big leagues, bringing everyone up along with them. 

I think what I particularly liked about this film was the fact that it didn’t try to be too family-oriented, but let the characters and pretty much everything develop naturally. As a result, the onscreen relationships are really strong and seem really genuine, the setting, although futuristic, is embraced and empathised with, and the audience really experiences an array of emotions strong enough to cause them to exclaim, gesture, and yell encouragement at the characters on the screen. 

Both performances from Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo who played his son were wonderful and equally as strong as one another with the robot, Atom, not being like a Number 5 character, but merely a loveable piece of furniture that acts as the glue that brings these two estranged characters together, physically and emotionally. It’s really lovely! 

Not to mention that the special effects, the robots, the sound editing and direction, and the adrenaline-fuelled boxing ring setting were an absolute knockout! Seriously the action and fight sequences were pretty damned awesome! 

Starring Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis, James Rebhorn, Karl Yune, and Olga Fonda, Real Steel is a great movie packed with action, knockout special effects, drama, comedy, contagious determination, romance, and comedy. It really is a great movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it!