Real Steel

After some shockers at the start of his career, director Shawn Levy appears to have been learning as he’s gone along as Real Steel is his best film yet. Set in 2020, robots have taken over from humans in the boxing ring. Ex-boxer Charlie (Hugh Jackman) owns robots who fight and, with a debt hanging over him (and the threat of worse if he doesn’t pay up), needs to find a champion quick. A spanner appears in the works when he finds himself with custody of his son Max (Dakota Goyo) from an ex-girlfriend. Their strained relationship takes a turn for the better when Max finds an old robot which eventually becomes a player in the boxing market…and, yes, you can work out the rest from here without much trouble. Basically, this is Rocky with robots (in fact, the main thread of the story is identical in some places). However, Rocky was a great film and so this can’t go too far wrong following that template. Yes, the plot is by the numbers, but the film triumphs where most other heavy on the special effects output fails in the fact it has taken time to draw up characters you care about. The relationship between Charlie and Max is highly believable, with the script smartly commenting that they are both drawn together by a common cause as opposed to any unrequited love for each other they didn’t know they had. There’s great chemistry between Jackman and Goyo, however it does also highlight how the same thing is missing in the “relationships” between the humans and the (non-verbal) robots. So the acting from the leads is good (plus Evangeline Lilly also pops up in a small but nicely formed role as one of Charlie’s friends), but what of the much mooted effects? The robots are fantastic, with a high proportion of the scenes actually utilising live action-models as opposed to CGI. The difference compared to something like Transformers is huge. Though the film still can’t make you feel for these non-humanoids, they certainly feel more “real” as opposed to Michael Bay’s charisma free CGI bits of metal. Overall this is just good film-making. It doesn’t push the envelope in any areas (though the effects are highly impressive), but what it does do, it does well. Due to its box office success a sequel is now in the pipeline. Not too sure what they are planning (a re-hash of Rocky II?) but I think this should just be left to stand alone and to retire with a winning record.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict

Fluff in some places, but like the robots themselves, this is more than the sum of its parts. Rating: 7/10