At first glance, you might think that Real Steel is just a live version of the game Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, but it isn’t. The movie was actually inspired by Richard Matheson’s short story ‘Steel’, which was produced as a Twilight Zone episode back in 1963.
Real Steel is set in the not-too-far future, where boxing spectators began craving deadlier battles. Because of this, human boxing has been banned, replacing human fighters with robotic gladiators. The film follows Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), a washed-up former boxer back before human boxing was banned. Now he manages has-been robot boxers underground circuit while racking up debts from shady people, including a former rival of his, played by Kevin Durand.
To add to Charlie’s ever-piling problems, his former sister-in-law (Hope Davis) and her rich husband (James Rebhorn) drop off his son Max (AMAZINGLY played by Dakota Goyo) to watch for the summer. Okay, there’s more to it than that, but we won’t spoil it for you. Now at first, Charlie and Max have no type of affection for each other at all, but eventually bond over their interest in robot boxing. Okay, it’s probably more for the fact that Max is a freaking robotics GENIUS, but who knows?
Charlie and Max’s journey towards reconciliation leads them toward Atom, an old-generation robot whose remains they find in a junkyard. The thing that makes Atom special is the fact that he mimics the movements of his controller. In Atom, Charlie finally has a renewed shot at being the contender that he never really got to be as a boxer. The whole “mimicking” thing is the only thing that gives Atom any semblance of personality. There have been a lot of complaints about the robots not having emotions. To that we say, get over it. Really. They’re just robots. so they’re not really supposed to have emotions anyway. Not every film robot is going to be a freaking TRANSFORMER.
To finish this up, Real Steel is a heartfelt father-son story with a premise that works way better and plays out less laughable than you might be expecting. The visual effects are superb, with the robots seamlessly integrated into the live-action footage. [Director] Shawn Levy has finally delivered a movie unlike any of his other flicks. And we loved the Night at the Museum movies (Oh shut up. You liked them too). And despite Evangeline Lilly’s character being severely underused (because she’s hot THAT’S why), Real Steel is, in our opinion, a great film made awesome by some sweet robot-on-robot violence.
