Real Steel review

Charlie Kenton: How the hell do you know Japanese? 
Max Kenton: Video games. 

Director: Shawn Levy
(2011)

My biggest complaint of the sports film genre is that if you’ve seen one of them, chances are you’ve seen them all. There are some exceptions of course, such as Warrior (2 protagonists) The Wrestler and Raging Bull (more focus on the character outside the arena/ring). Despite the fact that Real Steel is about boxing robots in the future, it’s still a slave to the conventions.

The film centres on Hugh Jackman’s character Charlie, a robot boxing promoter who seems to always be down on his luck. After losing his money and robot in a fight, he suffers another blow when his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) has to stay with him when his mother dies. The relationship between Charlie and his son max is cold and unloving, something of a pleasant surprise actually. Charlie only takes custody on him after his mother’s death to make a quick buck from the boy’s uncle. This initially makes Charlie the bad guy, he possesses more interest in money than he does in the wellbeing of his own flesh and blood. It’s actually a bit of a shame that their relationship does mend through their shared passion of robot boxing, Charlie’s love for cash outstripping his need to look after max made him a far more interesting character. Instead, he’s becomes predictably cliché, something that Real Steel is unendingly guilty of.

This predictability runs into Real Steel’s many fight scenes as well. Fighters will get up as the ref counts to 9 and the underdog always seems to snatch a surprise victory from the jaws of defeat. Despite being well  shot, these fight scenes lack any real bite. These massive metal robots leather the hell out of each other and nothing noteworthy happens, other than some loud clangs. It’s a shame that the punches completely lack conviction, as the choreography of these fights is solid.

Real Steels issues persist throughout, both inside and outside of the ring. The soppy love story that doesn’t go anywhere, the awful product placement intended to ram Microsoft products down our throat and the abundance of clichés aren’t even the biggest problems that Real Steel has. That would go to Charlie’s son max. He’s a precocious, bratty kid with no manners and is dislikeable from beginning to end. While it seems he is intended to grow on us as the film progresses, he still has a loud mouth and a bad attitude. This is obviously no fault of Dakota Goyo, but his character was annoying enough to lower my enjoyment of the film.

Overlooking its dislikeable characters and clichés, Real Steel is an easy watch, with successful pacing of its fight scenes so its 2 hour running time flies by. It’s a shame that it doesn’t do any different to other, better films that reside in this genre.

4