Real Steel is out 14/10/11
Director: Shaun Levy
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo
Certification: 12A
Synopsis: Charlie Kenton (Jackman) is an ex-boxer who had a chance to be the next champ until the game changed. RC Robots now rule the ring and Charlie is a low-level operator cruising circuses and side-shows to make money with his rickety robots. Things can’t get any worse when Charlie is forced to take care of his estrange son Max (Goyo). After finding a mysterious robot in a junk yard the two bond over the sport and attempt to take their plucky robot to the top.
REAL STEEL piqued THN’s interest way back when we saw an early pre-production, promo image of Jackman in the ring and heard the premise; robot boxing set in the near future you say? Ticket bought we say! That was well over a year ago and since then our enthusiasm has fizzled out some – gradually our robot related chubby shrunk and left THN with just a mild curiosity as to what this film would be exactly.
Boxing films are traditionally about the under-dog contender and their physical and emotional journey to becoming the champ; cue humble beginnings, introduce the evil adversary, add a training montage and finish with an against-all-odds fight complete with emotionally uplifting soundtrack – roll credits. What really cooked our noodle was wondering how this would translate if your boxing protagonist wasn’t human – how would the audience relate/react? The answer to this quandary is simple – this movie ain’t really about Robots boxing! Sure it’s got plenty of that going on and the bot on bot action is genuinely rousing and adrenaline pumping action that keep you on the edge of your seat, but that’s not the meat of the story. The meat of this story is a hammy tale of how a man learns what it means to be a dad. Yes despite the bells and whistles of mechanised mayhem – REAL STEEL is actually a soppy as hell father/son story that is so overt and sickly sweet, it ruins what could’ve been a pretty cool movie.
What’s wrong with REAL STEEL is that Hugh Jackman simply can’t pull off the low-life shyster character he is at the start of the movie. Charlie Kenton is a dirty dealing, sell his own grandmother type character, but we’re SO used to seeing Jackman as the disgruntled but ultimately kind-hearted Wolverine, that’s his performance seems like a ridiculous charade. Type-casting together with an overly obvious and sentimental story means you spend the whole film waiting for him to do the right thing.
He's no Fanning - Dakoto Goyo is just annoying
The right thing of course is ‘be a father’ and take care of his son Max, played by Dakota Goyo (Thor). Now one of the first lessons we learn in life is ‘nobody likes a smart arse’ and this kid is definitely one of em’. Both Goyo and the onscreen relationship with Jackman are annoying and cringe worthy. Goyo’s routine is the wise-beyond his year’s kid – giving a tough as nails guy a run for his money and it’s so trite that it detracts from the smashing and bashing. Every negative nuance (e.g. ‘I don’t like burgers’) of their early relationship is an obvious set up for how much they’ll change by the end of the film and its Hallmark dirge.
Right. Enough with the negativity – to be honest THN is just over exaggerating to make our point, although it is true that the kid is annoying and it’s SO corny – REAL STEEL is actually pretty enjoyable – it’s definitely no strain on the brain and very forgettable – but the robots look great and the fights are engaging and surely that’s all you’d want from a film like this. It really doesn’t elaborate or create a very big universe – even when it seems like there might be a more interesting origin story to the mysterious robot protagonist ‘Atom’ – it stops short and fails to make a link that you thought it was going to. Also – despite the fact it’s set in the near future, don’t be expecting any flying cars etc. apparently the only technological advances are that Hewlett Packard make everything and that we’ve perfected fighting robots.
REAL STEEL is out 14th October. Go and see it if you want to switch off for a few hours – but be prepared for the kid to irritate the hell out of you and watch Jackman acting like he’s the bad guy in a pantomime….the robots are cool though!
