Real Steel

Real Steel (2011)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433035/

I went into Real Steel not expecting much.  The trailers always seemed kind of hokey, and as much as I like Hugh Jackman, it seems his career is on the decline.  I was actually surprised at how well this movie was rated and how much money it made.  Seemed like another Rollerball waiting to happen. Well, I can't say I really liked the movie, but it did perform better than expected.





Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy's latest offering pits robot boxers against each other when our future selves have started demanding more carnage than human boxing could offer.  Charlie Kenton (Jackman) is at the bottom of his fighting career, making poor decision after poor decision and landing himself in hot water with local bettors. One day, he's slapped with a child custody decision of his son, Max (Dakota Goyo), whom has not been a part of his life for the past 11 years. Max turns out to be a big boxing fan, and after reluctantly going along for the ride with his estranged father, begins to form a bond through competition.  They acquire an unlikely competitor, an old, scrapped robot designed as a sparring dummy, who turns out to show real promise.  Starting at rock bottom and clawing their way to the top, the aim for the robot boxing world championship.

Hugh is a good actor. He seems to commit to whatever he does, he's just made some questionable decisions on which projects to undertake.  I enjoyed watching him, but we've all seen this story before.  It's basically Rocky with robots, as you would expect, and it's every bit as predictable, right up to the end.  Dakota Goyo turns in a surprising performance, to me, because I usually can't stand child actors.  He's a little prick in this movie, but that's how he was written, and at least I wasn't thinking how awfully he was reciting lines.  Although, I can't stand his ridiculous dancing, and why anyone would name their son Dakota baffles me, but I guess I can't fault him for it.  That's really the entire cast of this movie, as it mostly features CGI robots, but Kevin Durand makes an appearance, and he's good for his usual laugh (he reminds me a lot of Dwight Yoakam in Sling Blade).

Real Steel is a cheesy, tired tale, but at least its cast pumped a bit of breath into it.  The action sequences were handled pretty well, and the effects were pretty good, but all in all, just not that interesting.  A predictable finish to a run of the mill family action movie, I'd say give it a go if you have children.

Score: 6/10
Recommended: If you have kids that enjoy robot carnage