Just watched this movie with my 8 yo daughter and it was a lot of fun, she really loved it and I thought it was very well done and easy to watch. Lot's of very negative reviews not sure what they were expecting, I don't think anyone involved was planning a trip to the Oscars. Sometimes it's good to just relax and not over critique everything.
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brentcollyer7 March 2020
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quarterwave-271-90746920 January 2012I wasn't expecting much when I saw this movie - and I'm not really a fan of movies where kid's are the lead - but, I was pleasantly surprised with this one.
Even though this was a "formula / underdog" type of movie, it had me cheering for Atom, Hugh Jackman was great and so were the cast of characters.
The CGI was excellent, I really connected to the characters, and it was just a fun, guilty-pleasure (c'mon, boxing robots - who DOESN'T want that !) type of movie.
Not quite "A Space Odyssey:2000" but then again, it's not supposed to be.
FUN. ENTERTAINING. GREAT ACTION.
Recommended ! -
Real Steel is directed by Shawn Levy and collectively adapted to the screen by John Gatins, Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven from a Richard Matheson short story called Steel. It stars Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis and James Rebhorn. Music is scored by Danny Elfman and cinematography by Mauro Fiore.
Set in the near future, robot boxing is a big crowd pulling sport. After a struggling robot operator is introduced to an 11-year-old son he has never known, they stumble upon a discarded robot at a junk yard....
We can all moan about the mimicry of an idea and the clichés that dominate Real Steel, but you really got to hand it to the makers for what they have achieved. They have crafted a family film that's very much perfect in this day and age. The story is one that any adult Sylvester Stallone fan can acknowledge and appreciate, the human heartbeat pleasingly steady, while the premise of big colourful robots beating the crap out of each other delights youngsters and us adults who are still young at heart. Film pretty much does what any other film of this type does, lays on the syrup in the last quarter where second chances and family strife come thundering through the plotting. Undeniably it's hugely derivative, events are joystick operated to get an emotional response from a family audience, while product placement reins and the script often sags under the weight of unoriginality. But it does uplift the spirit and getting to the end is easy since it's so much berserker fun. Yes it's the robot Atom, the people's champion, yes it's David vS Goliath and yes! It's Balboa vS Creed. Nothing wrong with that really.
The cast don't really have to offer up much beyond being adequate within the context of the material, though a muscular Jackman finds good paternal chemistry with young Goyo. In fact Goyo is pleasingly not annoying, always a bonus is that. Inevitably the robots are the stars, they're a triumph of design and visual effects and a sight for sore eyes, while Levy has a good handle on staging the fight sequences - even when cribbing from Balboa. The near future look is terrific as well, with Fiore's colour photography very appealing. Coining in over $290 million at the worldwide box office (over £180 million in profit), Real Steel found the family audience it was looking for, proving once again that there is a market for simple and effective popcorn carnage. It's not high art or intelligently scripted, but was anyone seriously thinking that was going to be the case here? If you want brains with this premise then seek out Twilight Zone episode "Steel", starring the excellent Lee Marvin, otherwise just sit back and enjoy the ride and let the botty bots and human interest raise the pulse and gladden the heart respectively. 7/10
Home format release is a sparkling print, extras are annoyingly short but the blooper reel is fun, we get a stunt deconstruction, and we learn about the influence a certain Mr. Spielberg had on the production. -
NelsonJoshAlden13 July 2012I had low expectations and I am sure many people did so too, however I did rather quite enjoy the movie for various factors in which I will List: Every scene had purpose - No pointless scenes which have no impact on the audience. The Ending - Original and Motivating, showed it had a moral to the story (If you watched the movie, you would know)
HOWEVER, unfortunately the kid put me off immensely. I appreciate his confidence in acting but his screaming and his cheesy lines were just off putting. I also noticed that his technological understanding was ridiculously high, which is rather unrealistic...And that is an understatement.
That being said, I can sense a 'Real Steel 2' and would hope it turns out as good as this first one. Sequels are very hard to perfect especially for this movie, but I digress.
This movie is worth watching and if you plan on watching it, be sure to prepare your tissues. -
UniqueParticle19 February 2020I love watching Real steel whenever possible, delightful scenes especially with the kid and Hugh Jackman is awesome throughout! VFX are incredible and well polished; I'm glad it was nominated. Shawn Levy has done many projects under his belt that I have absolutely loved or even just consider a guilty pleasure which is nice too. I like the cuteness in many parts, definitely one of the better robot movies made in last couple decades!
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martinrobertson30048228 October 2011"Real Steel" is the cheesiest movie I've seen in quite some time. After a promising start, flick starts getting over confident in telling its story. A Story we've already seen before in "Rocky" and its many clones.
Set in a future where the only difference seems to be fighting robots. Hugh Jackman plays an out off work boxer and grade A a**hole, who is hopeless at getting new robots fighting. Jackmans life is supposedly turned around when the son he abandoned as a baby turns up and helps in finding an old robot, who ends up being great in the ring.
As I wrote above, the film starts off well. Jackmans playing a character that only cares about money and winning until the kid turns up. Even the kids doing well until he starts teaching the robot how too dance (and yes he even teaches him "the robot," sigh!) and like most over confident child actors, becomes the irritating c*cky kid in the movie.
I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that the old robot wins and Jackman ends up caring about more than just himself by the end off the flick, but the way they go about this is seriously corny, and the way in which Jackman started out makes me not want too root for him so much by the end.
Overall the films story maybe isn't as predictable as you'd think, and is saved from a worst rating by this, and its light sprinkiling off funny moments and cool robot designs. Round one though is better than round two. Which seems determined to out-do "Rocky" and all its many imitators, in an attempt to win the award for corniest movie ever. -
denvertts29 September 2020#3 on Netflix! Well deserved! I've watched this movie at least 3 times every year since it came out in 2011. Saw it pop up on Netflix & had tears in my eyes in the same parts I always do. This movie is full of heart & I will always love it. Fighters, fathers, underdogs will feel this movie to their core. ATOM!
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whitejra122 March 2020This movie was quite entertaining. It's a bit strange because of the fact that robots fight instead of humans. With that said, the robots are perfectly anthropomorphized so you feel like they are men.
But the special effects are robot fighting are only worth about a 6/10. Hugh Jackman's struggle to be a good father is actually well-acted out, both by him and the kid. The heroine role is also acted out well by a very beautiful woman.
This is not a perfect movie, but it captures many human emotions and seems to be a good movie for family-oriented people to flock around for an emotional, Rocky-like romp. -
simon-2873922 January 2016My son can't get enough of Real Steel, and I found it very entertaining throughout the whole movie. Its not the worlds best movie at anything, but I feel is a good solid effort that really has given me and my son plenty to talk about and have fun with. It reveals whats right and wrong with humans, plus gives give us great realistic action along the way.
The characters give us a great mix to love and hate and are played really well, along with some very cool robots that seem to come alive in their fights whilst you don't notice the cgi work.
Because my son loves it, I get plenty of satisfaction from this. It certainly sits a top of our DVD pile for replaying often. -
Happy_Evil_Dude7 October 2011Most of the time, if a film director hits the big time, it's usually that one of his films, early on in his career, has made a huge smash and given him status and power. This is the case for people like Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Shyamalan, Cameron, etc... However, if there's one director that has been steadily moving up the ranks of the Hollywood over the past ten years or so, starting out small and tackling on bigger, more ambitious and more prestigious projects as he goes on, it's definitely Canadian filmmaker Shawn Levy.
The man started out directing episodes of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows such as Animorphs or The Famous Jett Jackson in the late nineties, moved on to directing kids from those types of shows in their big screen efforts, such as Big Fat Liar and Cheaper By The Dozen and used the success of these films to bag ever more prestigious comedies, from The Pink Panther remake to Night At The Museum to Date Night. And while critics have mocked him and dismissed him, calling him an untalented hack, he has now graduated to a big, science-fiction blockbuster produced by Steven Spielberg himself, Real Steel.
Like a couple of other recent sci-fi releases, I Am Legend and The Box, Real Steel is based on a story by celebrated genre writer Richard Matheson. Well it is actually loosely based, or as the credits put it "partly based" on it. Indeed, Real Steel basically only retains the fact that robot boxers have replaced human boxers in the future from Matheson's story, which is probably a good thing as its twist ending is now so widely known.
Real Steel takes place in the very near future, barely ten years from now. Not much is different other than the fact that robot boxing is one of the most popular sports in the world and the phones, computers & co are much more advanced. Charlie Kenton, played by Hugh Jackman, is a former boxer turned small-time "robot trainer". Constantly in debt, he tours the US in his truck, looking for fairs where he can have his robot fight for cash. Things get complicated for him when the son he never cared about enters his life, finds an old robot in a scrap-heap and decides to have him fight.
Earlier this year, media outlets all over made a big fuss about the fact that Steven Spielberg had produced Super 8, which in their mind made Super 8 as much a Spielberg film as a JJ Abrams film. For some reason no such fuss has been made about the three other films Spielberg personally produced this year, be it Transformers 3, Cowboys & Aliens or Real Steel. Interestingly though, Real Steel is just as Spielbergian as Super 8, if not more. At the world premiere of the film in Paris, Hugh Jackman told us how the film was about a son and his father, and how the young Dakota Goyo is the heart of this film. I initially scoffed at this but when the film ended a couple of hours later I knew he was speaking the truth. The science-fiction robot ass-kicking element of the film is just a sheen under which the real subject shines through: the relationship between a father and his son.
Real Steel is actually a sports movie. The fact that it is about boxing robots is essentially irrelevant and simply serves to give it an identity and a cool factor. It could have been about human boxing, football, baseball, car racing, whatever, and the story wouldn't have changed, which is in my mind one of the film's big strengths. The story of Real Steel isn't particularly original, but it is instead a classic story, that speaks to our primal emotions as human beings. It is a David vs Goliath story that had the packed theater cheering, clapping and reacting like I've seldom seen a movie audience react.
The film is beautiful to look at, the fights are cool and the acting is of high caliber. Danny Elfman's music is effective but not particularly original and will remind you partly of his "emotion theme" for The Kingdom and partly of every sports movie music ever made. The rest of the music is mostly comprised of Eminem songs, apparently the most popular singer in the future. Contrarily to what another reviewer here said, I found the ending to be realistic and hugely satisfying.
The big difference between Super 8 and Real Steel is that while Super 8 is perhaps more enjoyable "in the moment" due to it being more high concept and having more stuff going on all the time, like everything JJ Abrams does it seems to lack in something and is somewhat forgettable. Real Steel, despite featuring many cold, metal robots, as a warm, beating heart at its core and for that I say: well done, Shawn Levy, well done. -
gremlins-haunt-my-house27 September 2011We saw an advanced screening on Sept 22. I thought it was going to be another one of those cheesy, campy, not really believable, warm fuzzy, type of underdog/rags to riches movies. I was actually surprised. It had some great plot twists, it had a real story line. And while yes, there is some language sprinkled throughout, it did make a good family movie for older kids, 10+ (my opinion). The ending wasn't quite what I was expecting, but looking back I think I liked it better for that. Who wants an ending they can see coming the entire movie?
It had some great comedy moments. The relationships between the actors felt genuine and not overdone or forced.
The robot animatronics was good. The robots themselves were fun and imaginative and definitely made me wish we really had this sport. I would so be there! -
Legendary_Badass7 October 2011Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a retired boxer, but he has a new sport of choice: robot boxing. He tours the small circuit looking for fights in an attempt to break into the big time. Charlie isn't the most likable of characters. He's got a drinking problem and a son he's never met named Max (Dakota Goyo). When an opportunity arises to make a buck off being a parent, Charlie has to take Max along for the ride.
The effects behind Real Steel are the real showcase. CGI is prevalent during the robot boxing matches. Though not necessary, the effort was clearly made to use some actual robots in close-up. The difference between the two will go unnoticed by most, in big part due to the smooth animation. I actually prefer the robot action in this movie over that of the Transformers series because the confined location of a ring or cage makes the action significantly easier to digest.
Real Steel comes from director Shawn Levy, whose entire niche is family friendly fare. As for story, this is a movie about family bonding more so than robotics, the sweet science, or training. It hinges on Hugh and Dakota so that's it's simply not a collection of brawls. The two get along fine, and though Max is written like the father figure many will take relief in his maturity. Real Steel has a plot that's aimed right at the kiddos with easy to distinguish good and bad figures. Of course the ice-cold Russian-Japanese duo behind the reigning champ Zeus don't have relatable family struggles to put them in a gray area.
There's some disbelief to suspend. An unsponsored robot fighting among tiny crowds in a bar isn't going to generate enough revenue to break into the black. There must have been a half dozen child endangerment offenses that were eradicated in the near future, around the same time 8-foot fighting robots first come into existence. Of course it didn't take long for the price to drop like a rock as the closest you can get to Atom today is Honda's ASIMO, and it's big feature is that it can balance itself. Real Steel also features an inordinate amount of robotic engineers, and focusing on a boxer turned robot operator is like finding a writer who repairs Kindles.
Real Steel has the robot action that will appeal to kids and the ultimate package isn't far from getting the Disney seal as distributor over the Touchstone marquee. It's a movie about bonding and values without the odd comic characters usually seen in a movie intended for children and dare I say less violent than Star Wars. -
Jonathon_Natsis17 October 2011What a little gem Real Steel could have been. Well before its release, and before any intricate plot details became known, this sounded like an intelligent film in which robots are forced to engage in brutal fights for the entertainment of their human masters. Where the story would've gone from there is left to the imagination, but it appeared to have all the makings of critically acclaimed, self-conscious science fiction. The final product differed heavily from initial expectations, however, and we are left with a hollow, albeit bearable alternative prompting those such as myself to ask: What could have been?
In the very near future (2020, according to director Shawn Levy) the human art of man-to-man combat has become obsolete. One-time fighters have been replaced by robots that do the dirty work while their human controllers reap the rewards. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is one such promoter, recently down on his luck and who lives not for the bright lights, but to make just enough money to survive. At this most inopportune time, he is forced to take care of his estranged son (Dakota Goyo), whose burgeoning friendship with an outdated sparring 'bot named Atom convinces Charlie to give the big time one last shot.
For a movie that has the skeleton to accommodate exploring the concept of human qualities in machines, a la Blade Runner or Artificial Intelligence, as well as (warning: pretentiousness ahead) the theme of 'ethics and morals of humanity', it actually does everything it can to avoid those topics entirely. My hopes for such a film were all but dashed with the casting of a child- a sure sign that the story would be strictly focused on Max and Charlie's relationship, and in that respect the plot seems unnecessarily restricted. This results in an inherently out-of-place scene in which Atom, all alone before a big fight, gazes into a mirror as if to question his existence. Its inclusion into the final cut is sure to whiz above the heads of its pre-teen target audience, while more mature viewers might interpret it as a cheap attempt to inject some heart far too late into the story.
Indeed, its family-friendly status is the biggest letdown of Real Steel. At the forefront is the misguided characterisation of Charlie's son, who is portrayed as, in my opinion, a spoiled brat who's so cocksure of himself all the time that a little part of you wants to see him fail. The child as an authority figure may appeal to those of Max's age, but it detracts from the contrasting, gritty realism of Jackman's character, and shuts down any hope of character-based realism in the process. Other attempts to please the male tween market include obvious allusions to toy lines and video games, as well as a mind-boggling assault of product placement, which becomes more than a little irritating during the second half.
The script is not disastrous. The writers dabble in clichés occasionally, but not quite to the point where it numbs the mind. On a more negative note, the screenplay does allow for an assortment of cringe-worthy moments (which some might call 'heart-warming', depending on personal perspective) that include dancing robots and the introduction of more than one excessively cartoonish side character, again limiting the level of engagement one can make with this movie.
The action set pieces in the film were visually pleasing, exploiting a decent amount of camera angles to give the viewer an intriguing look into the mechanics of robot rumbling. The CGI is impressive, and the clunky (as opposed to slick) movements of the robots actually work well, reflecting what a realistic fight between two heavy machines would look like. Jackman does his best as always, but he alone can't salvage a once-promising prospect that instead settles for being the very definition of blockbuster mediocrity.
*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review.* -
haris_manda15 October 2011I'm quite a fan of Hugh Jackman (The Fountain main) and I was looking forward to seeing this movie since. The movie was amazing.
Story was pretty decent, acting was phenomenal, special effects were OUTSTANDING and everything just clicked in. It wasn't lacking anything; action was there, drama was there, comedy was there, romance was there ... from minute one to 127 it kept me glued to the screen, holding my breath at robot fights and laughing even at the smallest of jokes.
What I liked the most was a chemistry between all characters; Charlie, Max and Bailey and each and every other character in the movie. They all brought the core of their characters to screen and blew our minds with their performances.
I must say that I didn't expect this movie to be this good. My expectations were high for special effects and Hugh's acting, but what this movie brought was more than just that.
Recommended for watching : it should be first on your non-watched movies of 2011 because it stands out by it's greatness and pure mind-blowing performances. -
AfricanBro21 August 2022It's always funny watching old movies that depict the future with all this brand new tech, like 90's sci-fi's thinking we'd have flying cars, or in this case Real Steel thinking we'd have robot boxing fights for entertainment in 2020. I remember loving this when I first watched it over a decade ago and after a recent run of disappointing movies I wanted to see something I knew or thought I'd love so I went with this.
Straight off the bat, I noticed how much more believable cgi and vfx used to look in the 2010's and you can see that with other movies like iron man or transformers, while new movies now just look like video games more often than not. I loved how even though it's set in the 'future', the surroundings felt relatable, not all super shiny, slick new tech, adds to the plausibility of it all even though it's scifi.
It's not complex plot or avant-garde script because it's made just for fun. Has everything you'd want in a feel good action flick; it has flare, blood pumping fights, great soundtrack, story, carnage, an underdog to root for and it even has heart as we get to see a father and son bond together. The movie is sweet and heartfelt at it's core behind all the metal bashing. One thing that stood apart for me about the movie is the end, it ends at the perfect moment, most movies would want a moment of reflection or something after an epic finale like that but Real Steel leaves you while your adrenaline's still pumping. If you haven't watched it, go watch it, and if you have, rewatch. -
DICK STEEL6 October 2011Real Steel is a science fiction fantasy piece that imagines a world in future where all that is possible, where humans take control of giant robots to do battle on their behalf in the boxing ring. But those looking for robot fight after robot fight might be better off with watching the Transformers trilogy from start to end, since you only get a handful of robot battles, with the bulk being montaged away in the midsection and the final fight even, which leaves behind an aftertaste of being short changed on the entertainment front, since we're like the spectators on screen, ready to see some hard hitting action from the get go.
Instead this film takes on a more human dimension, which is rather formulaic if you strip away the robot and machine component. Hugh Jackman plays Charlie Kenton, an ex-boxer turned robot gladiator who travels from arena to arena with his machine to fight the odd match for money, with little luck since his limited funding means a pile of debt and little else to spruce up his robot with any upgrades. To compound the problem, he gets to hook up with his 11 year old son Max (Dakota Goyo) he never knew, and forms a testy relationship fueled by stubbornness from both parties, which you know will turn for the better with their discovery of Atom, a sparse sparring robot they found in a junkyard.
It plays on the human themes of courage and never giving up when in pursuit of something, which of course gets translated via Atom in its many fights in the ring, designed to take plenty of hits, yet always having something extra within itself to stand up and continuing doing what it's meant to do. Through the inanimate object both father and son start to bond - Max being the convenient kid tinkerer of parts fueled by his belief and idealism, and Charlie bringing experience in fighting to the table, both becoming partners as they take on whatever gigs that come their way, until an outburst by Max meant a shot at the world title against the incumbent champion Zeus, funded by what seemed to be Russian money and Japanese expertise, a plot development you'll see coming very expectedly.
Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo share a wonderful chemistry together that worked wonders for the film, and especially Dakota for his ability to come off quite naturally without being in awe of his more illustrious co-star. Jackman continues to build his filmography with appealing, alpha-male type characters that never cease to put a wrong foot in, having the honour of being trained by the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard to prepare for his role as a boxer. Evangeline Lily plays Charlie's girlfriend and the daughter of Charlie's trainer in his days of being a boxer, and Anthony Mackie was severely under-utilized as a bout organizer and punter. Subplots involving a custody battle, and gangsters to whom Charlie owed money to were quite unnecessary, if not to pause the film a little to fill in the space between the robot fights.
The designs of the robots were definitely the highlight of the film, with names mirroring the ability the robots possess, and the animatronics were top notch naturally, with motion capture employed to detail the bouts. Plenty of thought went into the mechanics of the machines, from wireless control panels to components unique to each robot thanks to cannibalizing of others. Unique to Atom is its shadowing ability, since its built as a sparring bot, heavy set to allow for plenty of punishment, and like a sparring partner can mirror one's exact movements, which presents an angle of argument that machines that have that human touch, is probably blessed with the best of both worlds. I won't be surprised if Atom will get inducted into the annals of great cinematic robots one day for its endearing exploits in Real Steel.
Artificial intelligence versus human intelligence, awareness and experience is something that recurs in each of the featured battles, and in the real world, this challenge is something that continues to intrigue researchers to one day play God and create something that can mimic our human mind and decision making close enough. From defeating world champions in chess and Jeopardy participants, no doubt the computer on board can defeat a human opponent, but as far as I'm aware this competitive advantage has not reached a more physical arena, at least not yet to the level as shown in this film, but it will be intriguing if one day we do get there.
A glaring plot point I cannot reconcile will involve the super-robot Zeus which was touted to be the best of breed with being autonomous in learning from mistakes and from its opponents in real time. Alas we don't see much of those, if at all, in the film taking effect, which makes it a severe system flaw in failure of execution, or the usual marketing talk in building up hype, which is common in the real world. Which serves to explain that while machines can perform rote functions perfectly, humans will still always have the upperhand with creativity and innovativeness almost always worked into our solutions.
But don't let that detract you from this entertaining crowd pleaser coming from director Shawn Levy who knows a thing or two about crafting broad based films that appeal, even if it does follow a repackaged formula - tell me if you don't see similarities with Sylvester Stallone's Over The Top about a father and son, and in the competitive arena of arm wrestling - exploiting the popularity of robots in film in recent years. -
TroyeEvans10 October 2011Sometimes I do grow a bit weary of the robots-saving-the-world kind of movies. Surely they are action-packed and fun, but once in a while I want to look for something different. "Real Steel" brings the fresh idea of "boxing robots" and it was a very great experience for me and I will remember this movie for long in the days to come.
While this movie introduces us something new, it has maintained its balance well and further manages to do well in a lot of aspects. The elements of action and drama are nicely balanced, unlike the "Transformers" movies which really focus too much on being a showcase of visual effects and conveniently neglecting the plot. "Real Steel" is nothing like that. It is overall fast-paced with no boring parts. The scenes are appropriately cut. The plot itself is hardly predictable, with a little twists and turns here and there. There are also occasional moments of comedy and some touching scenes.
The acting is one of the best strengths of this movie. It is excellent. Extra credits should be given to Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo. Their performances are incredible, which make the film much more heart-warming. They take up major parts of the movie and we get to see a mending and building father-and-son relationship. The other actors are good too, though they do not really have much screen time to show it. Anyhow, the overall performance is just fascinating.
And how can we miss the visual effects and sound effects? They are superbly done throughout the movie. The robot designs are good and sharp. The movements of them are realistic and cool. The action is simply visually stunning. The sound effects are great achievements as well. The ambient sound is nicely done and it makes the fights between the bots a lot more appealing than it already is.
My slight suggestion is a longer ending. It will probably make the movie more complete. I would want more father-son interaction.
"Real Steel" is more than a box-office winner. It has a good story, good acting and good effects. It pretty much has all that is needed to make an excellent movie. Despite strong contenders this year like "Deathly Hallows P2" and "Dark of the Moon" and "Super 8" and perhaps "Rise of the Planet of Apes", I really hope this will at least get an Oscar nomination for visual effects. And I am demanding a sequel. Let's hope it will be made. -
george_jozwiak8 October 2011Any movie that gets the audience involved in a positive way and leaving cheering is an excellent movie. It is like Rocky on adrenaline and with a whole lot better acting. Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly and Dakota Goyo all have great performances. Dakota who plays the son really makes the movie, but all the actors performances are great. The guy who thought it boring... well, you lack passion and your soul must be dead. Real Steel is the absolutely hands down best movie I have seen in a long time. You will cheer, cry, laugh and be thoroughly entertained. I had to sit and watched the credits at the end just to catch my breath. Great movie.
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masoncheek15 May 2020Entertaining and filled with Hugh Jackman charisma, what is there not to like. Just a plain good movie. (Not plain in a bad way)
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StevePulaski14 February 2012My response to Real Steel is almost parallel to Hugh Jackman's reaction to the robot fighter Atom in the film. Upon initial advertising and trailers, I wasn't impressed by the film one bit. It looked like another film that glorified the "coolness" of robots, and then tried to tack on a contrived story of a father and son relationship. Never did I believe I'd see it and actually award it a positive score. Just like in the film where Jackman doesn't believe Atom has what it takes to be a successful fighter, and then is greeted with a rude awakening.
The film takes place in the near future, 2020 according to director Shawn Levy, where human boxers have been replaced by large metal monstrosities that do the dirty work while the humans occupy the controls and the commands for them. Charlie Kenton (Jackman), a former boxer, now spends his days using the robots to fight, but finds himself in a rough patch of failures.
After being informed his ex-girlfriend has died, whom he had a child with, Charlie must now take care of the kid for three months until his aunt and uncle return from their second honeymoon. The kid is eleven year old Max, played efficiently by Dakota Goyo. The two meet awkwardly, but experienced moviegoers like myself know that these two will soon become a cheerful father and son duo.
During a junkyard visit where Charlie and Max are searching for new parts for their robot, they stumble upon Atom, a small, yet relentlessly strong bot who is abandoned but still able to fight. They repair him, and then discover that with voice recognition and shadow effect, where the robot mimes the moves of a human) that he is a bot with a strong amount of potential for success. The rest of the film depicts the father and son's efforts to take Atom all the way to the championship.
The digital effects work very well together, and are much more eye appealing than the similar ones used in the Transformers series. For one thing, the fight scenes are coherent, entertaining, and extremely well scored by Danny Elfman, who this time gives us some delightfully different music.
The robots are captured using a variety of digital techniques. Some are animatronic, some are used through motion capture animation, where actors get fitted for special suits and imitate the motions of the character, and some just plain ol' CGI. All of these three techniques are blended very well together, and make for a very entertaining visual spectacle. Even the motion capture isn't as sketchy and glitchy as it normally is. In Ang Lee's Hulk back in 2003 it was clearly jerky and underdeveloped, in Mars Needs Moms, this same year, it was unnecessary and obtrusive, but here, it seems the effects team has gotten their act together.
I think the only fault here is the screenplay. but what makes it a bit better is the fact that the cast approaches it with optimism and the mentality that they will "make it work." Jackman certainly does, pulling off a sleazy, ignorant father who grows to appreciate his son and his job a bit more, and Dakota Goyo, like I said before, hits almost every note just right. The problem is the screenplay hammers us with several movie clichés we've seen many times before. The rags to riches story has shown itself many times, not to mention one's rise from humble beginnings to a successful career. At least Real Steel recognizes the movies it's paying homage to, like the whole end scene that slightly mirrors Rocky.
Director Shawn Levy has successfully made success out of two underdogs; the film itself and Atom. His previous flicks like Just Married and Night at the Museum were lightweight innocent features that failed to include anything on the same level as Real Steel. By the end, the film had given me a feelings I like to possess when I come out of a film I thought was going to be lackluster; reassured and surprised.
Starring: Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo. Directed by: Shawn Levy. -
v-5628921 March 2020Basically another boxing movie... but this time not with boxers, but robots.. Also a dad-son relationship and a story of success after struggling... lot of cliches.. Hugh is great as always, but Charlie, the character annoys me.. just as the kid...
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adihtc28 November 2015I had seen this film a couple of times in the last years and I enjoyed it every time.
The movie has various robot fighting and every robot has its own personality mixing all with a perfect blend of emotions.
For me the robot fighting was great. All late Huge Jackman's movies are good. There are also some comic scenes and the movie has an embedded message: you can always make things that sometimes you can not handle when you have other priorities; it may be hard but it can be done.
Dakota Goyo (the kid) did a good job as well.
I would watch again gladly this movie! -
classicsoncall8 January 2021I'll go out on a limb here and guess that the first time the idea of boxing robots was put to film was the fourth season Twilight Zone episode titled 'Steel', which aired on October 4th, 1963. Lee Marvin starred in that one, and when his mechanical fighter broke down against an opponent by losing it's left arm, Marvin's character put on a metal suit to enter the ring. I won't give away the ending, but if you think man vs. machine, you might guess the outcome.
So this story brings the concept into the present day, and although it's kind of interesting, I couldn't help but feel the whole thing was rather surreal, what with enthusiastic crowds cheering on machines pounding the crap out of each other. Why would that really matter to anybody? The main event between Atom and World Robot Boxing Champion Zeus brings the surrealism to yet another level, with sports reporters from ESPN waxing philosophically about the stakes involved in such a highly publicized and anticipated event. If robot boxing suddenly became a real entertainment spectacle today, I have to wonder how many fans would actually get behind it. To be sure there would be some, but it seems to me it would be experienced more as an underground sort of event than on the mass scale presented here.
With echoes of 1931's "The Champ" and 1976's "Rocky", the film relates the dynamic between a father (Hugh Jackman) and his estranged son (Dakota Goyo) who come together under stressful circumstances, and begin to grow close together due to their fascination with and love of robot boxing. What's astonishing to witness in the picture is the amazing dexterity and ability of the mechanical fighters, as the special effects utilized make them all appear to be almost human in their movements. A whole lot better at least than the tin can fighters first seen on screen a half century ago when Rod Serling came up with his story. Speaking of which, the robot boxer that Lee Marvin managed was called 'Battling Maxo'. Any chance Charlie Kenton's son was named Max just coincidence? -
timberendsen-192-10646421 October 2011This movie starts out well enough, hugh jackmann at his best: quietly driving a truck along a dusty road. his character, Charlie, is the cliché boxing, two-timing douche-bag roadrunner type, in this case set in a futuristic time (although the only futuristic pieces in the movie are robots and cellphones, and a truck that for some reason has windows where the driver's feet are), where robots do the boxing for you. Charlie is trying to win fights with the robots he buys or puts together from scraps, but does not demonstrate any skill, interest or dedication. He gets distracted and has no heart for the machines he uses. When he gets the news that his ex-girlfriend dies, he shows no emotional reaction, except for trying to swindle her rich sister for the custody of their only son, which he agrees to take on for a summer in order to receive a paycheck. The rest we can predict from here, and does not deviate from our most boring projections.
What could have been nice about this movie? almost everything. The script could have been smarter, funnier, sharper. The characters feel unnatural, especially the lead Charlie. He doesn't seem to know is he's a good guy or just a loser going along with the success of others. In a good movie, the protagonist classically undergoes a life-changing transformation, in this case the bonding of father and son, which changes the father's attitude towards life in general. However, the change has to be believable. In this case, it lacks severely.
When willing to forgive the corny story, the action also leaves a lot to complain. Where is the cool slow-motion tearing apart of metal? where is the cool martial arts / mma type fighting? the makers could have gone completely NUTS on this, but instead it's not very exciting.
BAD, BAD, BAD. Want action and entertainment? not here.. -
ArtandJoyofMovies10 October 2011Real Steel? TMG says Real Stupid. This movie is just dumber than dirt from the get go. I am sure some eleven year old boys who are into sci-fi and robots will think this film is really cool. But if we judge any film by that standard, snot on a grasshopper's back is entertaining and cool too.
Hugh Jackman plays a forty something eleven year old named Charlie Kenton who never grew up from playing with toys. The year is around 2020 and apparently the world has descended into a bunch of violence crazed degenerates who never bathe and spill beer everywhere and all love robo-boxing. This is a great start for a film targeted at pre-teens. During the scenes at the "Crash Palace" I really thought I was watching some outtakes from Waterworld (1995) and Dennis Hopper would come back from the dead with a black eye patch on. This just goes to prove what a piece of junk $100 million can buy you in a movie.
Charlie is a former boxer, irresponsible no-mind, who builds boxing robots with money from loan sharks. His lucky day hits when he learns his ex-girlfriend has died and has left him with his biological eleven year-old son Max (Goyo). For the good of no one, Max's Aunt Debra wants to adopt Max, so Charlie makes a deal with her uber wealthy husband for Debra to keep Max for $100,000.00. Max's loving Aunt Debra then immediately turns him back over to Charlie for the summer while she and hubby vacation Europe. This is all just dandy.
Little Max turns out to be a way too smart, way beyond his years smart ass of a kid, who of course is a genius at building half-ton ton, artificially intelligent robots. He runs from county fair to county fair with dear old Dad building and fighting robots against skin heads and the dregs of society–which is pretty much the entire earth at this point. All the while, Charlie manages a ridiculously contrived relationship with the daughter of his former boxing trainer. In the interim, we get a 2010 film tech adaptation of father and son playing and updated 1964 era version of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots.
Charlie and Max, down on their last dollar, build a scrap heap robo-fighter from a junkyard and name him Atom. No spoiler at all what happens next as they rise to the top of the robo- boxing world and find love. I wanted to just puke. If this terribly written plot and cliché driven dialogue represents the future of of anything, I don't want to live that long.
I did notice a few things along the way. Goya looks and acts amazingly like young Mark Sway (Brad Renfro) in The Client from 1994. I wondered if they were actually brothers. (Let's hope the promising young Goya fares better than Renfro who died at 25 from a drug overdose.) I noticed, oddly enough, that all cars in 2020 all look like 1990′s models. I also noticed that giving an eleven year old boy a line like "Anything you don't need, you just throw away" is not even heart inspiring in a totally absurd movie. One hour in, I was bored to death and was frankly surprised few adults were walking out. Perhaps they did not realize films like 50/50 and The Way and The Help were showing right next door. Real Steel even made Thor look inspiring, well written fun and believable and I didn't think that was even possible.
And what is with all the scenes of prairie windmills in this movie? It really looked like the Director was trying to make some political statement on energy for no reason. Fact is, if those absurdly inefficient bird killers on the Kansas plains are still running in 2020, we are all in real trouble. Maybe we will all be wearing sleeveless shirts, go un-bathed, and drink beer all day while playing with robots and reading Al Gore's biography. Nah. . . . I don't think so. It might be cool if Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots comes back though.