Somewhat surprising in that it’s not terrible. I have to admit, I wasn’t exactly waiting with baited breath to watch a movie version of the robot boxing game Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em, and the trailer looked ridiculously cheesy. I still wouldn’t call Real Steel a good movie (and we’ll get into its faults in a minute) but sometimes a movie can win sheerly by you lowering the bar to the ground and the movie being able to walk over it. On that level, Real Steel is a wild success and–I dare say–the best robot boxing movie I’ve ever seen.
What Works: Let’s be honest, Hugh Jackman has never been the most nuanced actor and if the dude ever delivers a performance that goes beyond broad strokes, I’ll be surprised. What he’s good at is getting you to like him and he does that even as his character is, essentially, a degenerate gambler and deadbeat dad with remarkably little sentimentality–at least initially–for his own son. Also, watching two robots smash each other delights my inner ten year old no matter how many times (a year) I see it (Transformers being most recent).
What Doesn’t Work: Well, some will vehemently disagree with me but I feel the actor that plays Hugh Jackman’s son (due to respect for child privacy, I won’t give his real name in case he one day wants to grow up to be something respectable instead of an actor, like a porn star or a coke head) is not good. In fact, I would call “not good” something of a euphemism for “when his character is in danger, I wanted him to die so I didn’t have to hear any more dialogue being shouted like that gives it emotion.” Also, Lost’s Evangeline Lilly looks great but is wasted in the requisite “hot girl on the sidelines” role. And, the subplot involving custody over the son really felt unnecessary and tediously distracting.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Deep sixed the subplot with Hope Davis (a great actress who may never again find a great role by the looks of things) as the rich aunt who wants custody, and shown it simply that Hugh Jackman’s son is stuck with him because he has nowhere else to go. It ups the ante a little instead of saying “Here’s a somewhat bratty kid who has two ‘Not too bad’ options of either being a spoiled rotten rich kid or essentially living out every kid’s fantasy of being around large robots that beat each other to scrap metal.” As is, leaving in the custody battle is one unnecessary subplot too many (such as the good ole boy loan shark Hugh Jackman owes money to) and the movie is best when sticking to the world of competitive robot boxing–never thought I’d type that sentence. The more time spent in that world, the better.
Nice review – i’ll check it out