Real Steel

So, I will be the first to tell you, I did not have the smallest bit of desire to watch Real Steel. Then when it comes out, the abundance of praise it received from not only the audience, but the critics made me wonder. Got nothing else to do on a Friday afternoon, so why not hang out with the A-Bomb and M-80 for a film that floored me. I knew the basic premise. Estranged Father and Son bond over battle bots or something to that nature. Turns out, it was pretty difficult to watch from a Father's point of view. Charlie (Jackman) is a grade A prick. He never saw his son before he was saddled with him at the age of 11, when the boy's mother dies. I'm not gonna go into the details, but Charlie plans on only retaining custody for 2 months. Cliche' alert: They bond. Fortunately from a story aspect, it happens to a great one. Human boxing is a thing of the past, and now gamers build ultimate fighting machines for high dollar payout, or invest in what eventually becomes a pile of scrap. The sport has been around for about 15 years or so, and it has evolved quite a bit. When Charlie doesn't have a leg left to stand on, he owes money all over town, and has recently trashed 2 robots, which happens to be his only form of income. He and Max (His son) go looking through a scrapyard to find parts when both their lives change. Long story short, they find a robot unlike any they have ever seen. It really reminds me of the Iron Giant robot, and funny enough, it seems there is a lot of that film inside of this one. Charlie and Max start Atom (The Robot) at the bottom of the ladder to see how he does, and though he is a little slow, can't pack much of a punch, he is better built so he can withstand a pounding. The travel the underground circuit long enough to be invited to the big leagues. The film is cliche' laden, but don't we love that about movies. If we didn't love cliche's, there would be no more movies. What makes this film brilliant is the attention to detail in each and every shot. It is very neat to watch Atom the whole time he is on screen, because he is equipped with a "shadow mode". This means he mimics what he sees, and I mean every little detail. How he walks, moves his head, and clutches his arms. Although the film starts out rather dark, it is extremely funny mostly throughout. The banter between boy and Father and spot on perfect. This movie takes cues from lots of our favorites, but is very individual at the same time. The most obvious one to me is Robot Jox. Apparently it's just me though, as I have not met anyone who has heard of it, though I saw it in theater. Then we have the obvious underdog story borrowed from both Rocky I and Rocky IV, and the Iron Giant as already mentioned - A boy and his robot. The last correlation to me is the Father/Son relationship. They don't know each other until now, so why not spend every waking moment in a rig driving across the country to compete in Arm Wrestling Robot fighting matches? Of course I speak of Over the Top. Real Steel did several things very well. Things that had to be done well, or the movie could have been good but not great. The robots is what I speak of. They were seamless. Fluid machines in every way. Does not look CG at all. So much so that I will stand behind my next statement..."More real than Transformers!!" I am glad I watched this film. I sweated out my shirt during the matches if that tells you anything about the realistic factor. Can fighting robots mend 11 years of abandonment and Daddy issues? Watch and see. The kid needs an honorable mention. This kid, Dakota Goyo, is one hell of a good actor. At his age, he kept toe to toe with Hugh, but his delivery of sarcasm and smart ass lines were perfect. I think he will have no issues booking jobs after people see Real Steel.

NBM rates Real Steel - Aweso-nomenal