Real Steel (2011)

Directed by: Shawn Levy | 127 minutes | action, drama, science fiction | Actors: Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Kevin Durand, Anthony Mackie, Hope Davis, Phil LaMarr, James Rebhorn, Dakota Goyo, Olga Fonda, David Alan Basche, Karl Yune, Jahnel Curfman, Steven Hugh Nelson, Richard Goteri, Torey Adkins

Things aren’t going well for Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman). The former boxer has huge debts and his robot Ambush is crushed by a bull during a fight at a fair in a Texas town. Then, to make matters worse, he learns that his ex-girlfriend, whom he hasn’t seen for ten years, has passed away. From that relationship, he has an 11-year-old son named Max (Dakota Goyo), but he has scandalously neglected the boy. Unwilling to take custody, he strikes a deal with Marvin (James Rebhorn), the wealthy husband of Max’s Aunt Debra (Hope Davis). Charlie transfers custody for $100,000, but takes Max in tow during the summer.

Charlie uses the money to buy the robot Noisy Boy, who has fought for the League, but that too is quickly crushed. Just right, you would think, because Charlie is a very stubborn bastard, who treats his newfound son pretty badly. It is thanks to the charm of Jackman and his acting that you as a viewer will not hate him terribly. Then, at a far-fetched rescue scene at a garbage dump, Max finds a sparring robot named Atom. With a few tweaks, Atom will be deployed as an underdog in battles against much larger and more advanced robots. Until the inevitable championship match comes against the unbeatable robot Zeus.

‘Real Steel’ is a typical (American) sports story, in which an apparently hopeless individual or team, after all kinds of setbacks through perseverance and inspiration, manages to come back time and again and achieve success. Not only because the sport in question is boxing, the film is very reminiscent of ‘Rocky’. In fact, the scenario seems to be largely copied. The adage “better stolen well than badly conceived” applies here and the original elaboration with robots means there is no shame in imitating an Oscar winner for best picture. The second storyline is also a familiar one: an absent father and a rebellious son who are forced to bond and slowly but surely grow towards each other. Despite the fact that this concept is quite chewed up, Jackman and Goyo still manage to bring it fresh. A bit strange is that Charlie never asks about Max’s mother whether her death is discussed and how the boy feels about it. It seems as if those scenes were cut on the editing table, which is a bit of a squeeze.

Clichéd scriptwriting aside, what really matters in a film about boxing is of course the fights. The makers have achieved a beautiful result with a combination of robot models, motion capture and digital effects. As a viewer you never have the idea that you are watching trickery and the fight scenes look spectacular. Where three ‘Transformers’ films failed, ‘Real Steel’ manages to show convincing battles between the robots, where you can actually follow the action. So no quickly assembled and cluttered throwing and throwing work, but two steel monsters that completely rotten each other in a limited arena. Partly due to the work of former boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard, who provided the fight training and the “moves” of the robots, it all looks so realistic that it is not even that difficult to imagine that – with the advancing technology – in the future, meters-high robots will fight against each other. Until then, on film, with the very entertaining ‘Real Steel’.