Plot:
Ex-boxer Charlie Kenton just had one of his bad days: owing too much
money due to robot boxing bad bets on, his ex-girlfriend has died leaving him
with their eleven-year-old son Max. Thankfully, the ex’s sister wants the boy,
and he wants to get rid of him (convincingly). After making a deal with the
sister’s husband, Charlie takes his son for the summer. Max, while at first
resentful of his father, begins to appreciate the wild life (involving robots)
his dad leads. He soon becomes involved in the rough and tumble world of robot
boxing with a robot that he discovers named Atom. Get ready to rumble!
Review:
Adults loves Rocky, kids are crazy about Transformers, so I guess
combining them was not such a bad idea, wasn’t it? Apart from the cheesy and
corny script, plus the unimaginable and non-existent notion of replacing humans
with robots on boxing, Real Steel is
a fun, enjoyable, and entertaining family movie. Frankly, I did not expect it
to be this good, even much better than the Transformers series (yes, you read
that correctly).
Everybody loves the underdog story, especially in boxing flicks, where
most of its famous movies have the similar plot, from ‘Rocky’, ‘Cinderella Man’,
‘The Fighter’, etc. Even better, Real Steel added the robots, father and
son bonding, and video games. Its robotic premise would appeal any boys and
men, and the drama (plus cheesy parts) surely would attract the girls and
women. It’s amazing that Shawn Levy is able to connect the dots adequately and
making Real Steel actually a good
flick, considering his last movies such as Night at the Museum 2 and Date Night
did not perform that well.
Hugh Jackman is pretty good at his rare parent role (is it the first
time he was cast as a dad?), where he was pretty much hateable during the first
half, and transformed into a ‘perfect’ dad near the end. A good casting, he’s
likeable, charismatic, and women are craving for him (that’ll do). But the
scene stealers has to be the Jackman’s long lost son, newcomer Dakota Goyo
(remember the little Thor?) And like any other kids in Hollywood movie, he was
‘blessed’ with advanced intelligence, likes video games, and has DNA for
customizing robots (who does that, anyway?). I bet everyone must be fall in
love with Max and his antics, although in latter parts during the big boxing
matches, he tends to scream a lot, and that was kinda annoying. Nevertheless,
the heart of the movie lies in these two pivotal characters, and added by other
splendid cast such as Evangeline Lily and Anthony Mackie, not to mention the
robots, Real Steel’s corny script was
propelled by the terrific cast.
Technical point of view, the fighting scenes were amazing, and I
actually prefer this kind of thing rather than the shaky or quick editing ala
Transformers kinda thing (you barely see who’s punching who). In Real Steel, the boxing scenes were well
choreographed (Sugar Ray Leonard handled the thing), the robots movement were
logical, easy to follow, and as intense as the real human boxing. And also,
they come in cool names as well which you can use for your avatar nick names, from Noisey Boy, Twin
Cities, Midas, Six Shooter, Ambush, and last but not least, the great Zeus.
Every one of them has its distinctive feature, easy for the audience to
actually remember them. Especially for Atom, I guess Spielberg gave some advice
from his E.T experience, just give it a pair of humble blue eyes. Conclusively,
it is a budget well spent by the CGI department.
Nevertheless, Real Steel is
not that fully polished movie in the end. One of the major low downs is that
the ending was quite premature, and I believe it should have been concluded
even further than the current version. I felt disappointed since there are
still many question left unanswered, and I bet after you see the credit title,
you must be asking, “What about this, what’s next?”, and so on and on. Added to
that, 127 minutes running is kinda long a straightforward plot, some scenes
were actually safe to be excluded. With no major surprises or even twisted plot,
it is a happy-go-lucky movie after all. Of course it sounds totally unfair to
compare this Disney theme flick to calibre movies such as ‘The Fighter’ or even
‘Cinderella Man’, but still watching Hugh Jackman and the robots is a
celebration of joyful and fun entertainment despite of the rusty script
writing, coupled with a good dose of genuine heart. In the end, you’ll root for
Atom.
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