Would you rather fight Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, or an 8-foot-tall, 8000 pound super heavyweight robot? I’d go head-to-head with Rocky over a huge Transformer any day, but luckily in the future where this movie is obviously set, boxing has been outlawed – at least between humans. Now, robots duke it out in the ring controlled by their human counterparts in their respective corners. Real Steel is based on the short story Steel written by Richard Matheson. Hugh Jackman plays the role of Charlie Kenton, once a fighter back in the day but who now pieces together fighting robots with scrap metal.

As predictable as Rocky ultimately coming out as a champion, Reel Steel predictably tells the story of a gruff, cold-hearted Jackman who is transformed into a different man at the end of the film. No championship titles awarded to him here though. When Charlie’s long abandoned son Max (Dakota Goyo) comes back into his life, he discovers that his young son is a whiz-kid of machinery. Initially having no use or affection for one another, Charlie and Max are brought together as they build their underdog robot boxer Atom to life. Of course, Atom wins a couple of amazing bouts, and ultimately gets a shot to go up against the undefeated Zeus. One might think it’d be difficult to care about robots fighting in the ring, but somehow the actors and producer Steven Spielberg pull it all off to a certain extent. I found myself secretly hoping like a little boy for Atom to win his last fight – the same way I rooted for Bumblebee in Spielberg’s Transformers trilogy.

To the film’s credit, the robot boxing scenes are well executed. Like Transformers, Reel Steel is the real deal when it comes to robot smashing eye candy. It all looks graphically awesome, and as realistic as robot fighting could ever be. Despite the predictable storyline, the film is still engaging enough to have you cheering on for your favorite robots.
Poster Pic from Real Steel Movie Site.

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