Real Steel(2011)- User Reviews

This movie is pretty much what you'd expect, and a bit of what you might not expect. It has been called "Rocky" with robots, or "The Champ" meets Rock 'em Sock 'em, and while there may be some similarities, "Real Steel" does manage to blaze its own path, even if it's a well-trod path.

Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a proud fighter who's had a severe run of bad luck. It's his pride that causes him to make stupid choices and blinds him to the obvious. Things don't get any easier when he learns that he has to take care of his 11-year old son, Max (Dakota Goyo), while trying to put together a fighting robot in order to get back into the game. It's during a night of scavenging for parts when Max finds a buried sparring robot and decides to get into the world of robot fighting himself, with a little help from the reluctant Charlie.

What follows is a rather well-made movie about a man discovering the son he never bother to know, and in doing so discover himself in more ways than the obvious. Jackman delivers a very charismatic performance that you'd forgive the arrogant prick that Charlie is in the early half and root for his redemption in time for the expected climatic fight. Yes, it's formulaic, but it works well enough that you would be cheering by the end, and if you're feeling energetic enough, you might want to join Charlie in shadow boxing. The young Goyo does come across as typically annoying at first, but the writers and director do give him time to develop as a sympathetic character and have you cheering for him as well. You can see how and why Charlie would end up bonding with his son. The rest of the characters feel a touch under-developed with so much focus on Charlie and Max.

Then there are the robots.
There is a combination of physical and digital effects going on, enough to give the robots a real sense of weight and physicality, and having the stars physically interact with them help in making them believable. The relationship between Max and his robot, Atom, makes the robot so empathetic (and those eyes) that you swear there's something going on in that robot's head. If only it could be so for some of the other characters.

Overall, the structure works and the stars drive the plot well enough that it builds up nicely to the incredibly rousing finale. It might be a little cliche in some respects, but this is "Rocky" for this generation who probably never saw the movies mentioned earlier. Throw in the robots, and you've got the kid in all of us cheering along with the kids in the audience.