Directed by Shawn Levy
Staring Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly & Dakota Goyo
Rating M
Score 5/6

By Tanteliz

Set in the near future, where robot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he’s found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father.

This would not be my first choice in movie especially with its lead actor being Hugh Jackman. Not after his role in that abomination of a movie “Australia”. What was the man thinking? But maybe he had bills to pay at the time and couldn’t be choosy! However Real Steel pleasantly surprised me.
Set in 2020 when robots do the boxing and not humans. Hugh Jackman play Charley, s a loser of a manager/owner, a loser of a boyfriend and a a loser of a father. He manages to get 2 of his robots destroyed, put his girlfriend Bailey into debt into debt and risk losing her boxing gym. He tops things off by selling his own son, Max, to the kid’s aunty . I found myself wanting to shout at the screen to Bailey and Max to kick this selfish loser to the curb.. Not a very nice character. A father son relationship is formed as Max teaches his childish Dad a thing or two.
This movie is a bit clichéd and at the end lays on the emotions thickly as Spielberg tends to do. The robots and special effects are great and lifts the movie above average. Thankfully there are lots of robots! Boxing fans might recognize in the fight between Atom and Zeus a technique employed by Ali in his match with George Foreman that Ali called ” rope-a-dope” to wear his opponent down(Rumble In The Jungle 1974).