Real Steel

I have a love/hate relationship with sports movies (don't even get me started on my hate/hate relationship with fighting robot movies. Transformers 1&2). On one hand, they're predictable. The hero's either going to win or loose, there's not much else you can do about that. On the other hand, the good ones really know how to get you cheering. And Real Steel really knows how to do that.

Hugh Jackman stars as Charlie Kenton a struggling robot boxing fighter (stay with me) who's looking for one great robot to put him back in the game. He and his newly discovered eleven year old son Max (played by newcomer Dakota Goyo) find an old bot in a junkyard (Atom), clean him up and train him with some of Charlie's old boxing moves. 

I was thoroughly satisfied when I came out of Real Steel. I haven't felt as satisfied after a movie since July (HP7). Real Steel's real left hook (both puns intended) is the emotion it brings. I was pulling for Atom to win all the fights. I wanted Charlie to become a real father to Max. I felt bad when Atom was loosing.

Hugh Jackman can really deliver emotional scenes when it's needed. His chemistry with Evangeline Lilly was really fun to watch. But the relationship that really made the movie was between Goyo and Jackman. The casting for both of them was spot on. They have the same quirks, same personalities, and same attitudes.

I'm a big fan of motion-capture technology and I thought it was utilized perfectly for this movie. I sure hope they continue to use it in these kind of movies. It makes everything seem a little more human. Well, as human as boxing robots can get.

When a movie about robots fighting each other can get the audience to cheer (and not just the female portion when Hugh Jackman takes his shirt off) for the robots, you know it's good. Real Steel was just that. Not an Oscar winning drama, but a genuinely fun movie. A nice surprise. 

Actors: Hugh Jackman (Charlie Kenton), Dakota Goyo (Max Kenton), Evangeline Lilly (Bailey Tallet)

Recap: B+

Photo Courtesy of Dreamworks SKG