Real Steel is not an original film. It is an amalgamation of several different films all rolled into one. It's a family drama, an underdog story, and a redemption film and it's not necessarily all that good.
But I really liked it. Well, most of it. Because of one single member of the cast.
Onto the review!
At times, this really is Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots: The Movie. The premise is that the field of robotics and mankind's need for bigger and better violence eventually pushed real boxers out of the entertainment world and replaced it with WRB: Worldwide Robot Boxing. It's now the year 2027 and times are tough for anyone who was pushed out of the boxing world.
The way the movie was designed, our hero is Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman). He's a former boxer who now fights, poorly, in the underground robot boxing world. You see, Charlie is a loser. A complete, worthless, untrustworthy jackass of a loser. We open the movie with him sleeping off a bender in the back of his truck. He is awoken by a phone call from one of his many debtors. Then he tries to milk five bucks out of a group of kids asking to take a picture of his fighting robot. You see, Real Steel is not subtle. Five minutes into the movie and you know Charlie is just a total jerkwad.
After he loses his boxer and a major bet, we get the wheels spinning on this plot. You see, it turns out that about 12 years ago he got a woman pregnant. That woman is now dead and her 11 year old son is, by law, his to raise. After another scene that further shows how terrible a person Charlie is, an agreement is reached that Charlie will take his son, Max (Dakota Goyo) for the summer and then hand him over to his rich Aunt.
THIS is where the film gets good. I say this because the movie's heart is in Max. Though the trailer wants you to think that Real Steel is about Charlie's redemption, it's not. It's about Max redeeming his father. This kid is the film's heart, brains, humor and cockiness. He gets every good line and is hands-down the best actor in this thing.
Over the course of the next 90 minutes, you get to see Max turn his father into a caring, loving, brave father who really, really doesn't deserve it. The screenplay gives you absolutely no reason to believe Charlie's change of heart, but it's yet another example of 'scumbag grows a heart after an outside presence shows him what's missing.'
Of course, we do throw in a love interest for Charlie in the form of Bailey (Evengeline Lily), who is the daughter of his deceased boxing coach. Bailey adds a bit of backstory and emotional depth to Charlie's life, but that's her only purpose, really. Everyone else that shows up is either a 'friend' who helps Max and Charlie out, a competitor or a random bad guy. You will have no problems identifying the role of everyone who shows up on screen. In fact, I daresay you'll even be able to correctly guess whether or not they ever appear again and when.
That's the problem with Real Steel. It's predictable. It's Rocky and Over The Top and Pay It Forward and all sorts of other movies all rolled into one. Hugh Jackman is the star whose job is to bring in the audience, but young Goyo is the real reason to stick around the theater. I'm really not exaggerating when I say that this kid may very well be the next Haley Joel Osment. His IMDB bio shows that this isn't his first film, but I've never seen a kid carry a film so well, so effortlessly, and so entertainingly.
And entertain it was. By the time the movie ended, predictably or not, there were people in the audience clapping and bouncing in their seats. People were smiling, kids where cheering, and parents were glad they took their kids to see this movie. Even before that, people were sniffling and teary-eyed during the dramatic scenes, and laughing during the comedic ones. The only weird thing to note is that every single audience reaction was directly related to Max. Nobody laughed or cheered at Charlie or Bailey or anyone else. There were no 'awww's when they predictably kissed. But when Max was dancing with his robot, there were kids in the theater who you just knew were going to ask their parents for a dancing robot just so they could be like Max.
By all means, go see Real Steel. I give it shit for being predictable and boring and a rip-off of other movies. I'm not going to deny that or back away from it.
It's just, well, they did such a good job of stealing all the best stuff, and then finding the only kid on the planet who was capable of keeping this film from going off a cliff. After all that I have no problems supporting this movie. Again, it's not Rocky. Hell, it's not Warrior. It's kinda hackneyed and goofy and the robots border on the ridiculous. Despite all that, I really enjoyed this movie.
Provided Max was on screen.
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