Real Steel: When the popularity of the more brutal sport of 'robot boxing' spread around the world, traditional boxers and their sport became obsolete. Now former champions like Charlie Gibson (Hugh Jackman) have been forced to evolve their roles, becoming mechanical engineers, mechanics and 'promoters'. Charlie has proven he's much better in the ring than anything else, losing fights, building up bigger debts to exceedingly nasty people and suddenly charged with taking care of an ll year old son Max (Dakota Goyo). Their relationship and luck change when they discover the remains of an old 'sparring robot'.
Review: I'll admit, the first time I saw a trailer for this one I was probably not the only one wondering how Hugh Jackman, an actor with a penchant for making the worst concepts worth watching (Van Helsing, anyone?), and Shawn Levy known, mostly for Cheaper by the Dozen and Night at the Museum (not exactly major contributions), could pull this off and make it an interesting, more dynamic story and not just a high-tech version of Rock'em, Sock'em Robots. Leaving the theatre, I was surprised how much liked this movie. The fights (and plenty of them, with Sugar Ray Leonard providing the choreography, they're extremely authentic) never really take center stage, even with the exception of 'Atom', the sparring 'bot. Goyo's intelligent, often smart-ass performance is more than a match for Hugh Jackman's cynical, world-weary, often foolish character and they tend to steal the show with every scene they're in together. Max has some of the funniest lines in the movie! That becomes even more pronounced as their relationship evolves into something more personal and their walls come down. They become even more engaging when Max practically forces Charlie to train Atom and the boy takes center stage as their promoter! The only real problem I had (and it was in the back of my mind as the movie kept going) was a virtually nonexistent storyline about the dead girlfriend/mother.
They story never leaves its supporting characters behind. Each actor effectively makes the best of the screentime they have. The fellow promoter (Anthony Mackie The Adjustment Bureau) who used to believe that Charlie was worth it, the thug who wants his money back or Charlie's life, if not both (Kevin Durand) but most importantly, Charlie's childhood friend, Bailey (Evangeline Lilly Lost) who's been with him from the beginning while hiding how she really feels about him as they got older.
In the end: This is a smart, funny and surprisingly emotional film. With pretty redefining direction from Shawn Levy and flat out fantastic performances from it's cast that keep this from being a completely ridiculous movie.
Grade: B+
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