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Oct 07, 2011
By Audrey Hendricks
How many of you remember Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots? The Blue Bomber and the Red Rocker? If you don’t, you must’ve been living under a rock since 1964. I loved them! They were so cool! If you hit the other guy’s robot just right, his head would shoot up meaning you won that round.
Real Steel is like Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots come to life.
Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a retired boxer who now boxes seven foot tall, 1,000 pound robots. Charlie has hit rock bottom in life. He owes too many people money, including his friend and partner Bailey (Evangeline Lily), can’t win a fight to save his life and is constantly getting himself in situations he can’t handle. After losing yet another fight, he gets word that an ex-girlfriend of his has passed away and left him with his 11 year old son Max (Dakota Goyo).
The reunion didn’t go all warm and fuzzy by any standards.
They are at each other’s throats. After yet another loss, Charlie and Max head over to the junk yard to find more robot parts to build yet another robot when Max has a near death experience and discovers a G2 (2nd Generation style) sparring robot, named Atom. With the reluctance of his “father”, Max starts to train Atom to fight – on his own.
Atom can really pack a punch. This gives him the advantage to stay in the ring longer than the usual robot. Atom earns his way to the WRB (World Robot Boxing) Federation. The number one champion of the WRB, Zeus, and his owners do not like how fast Atom and Max are going up in the ranks. They proposition Charlie and Max, offering to buy Atom, but Max strongly expresses his disapproval of the business exchange and challenges Zeus to five rounds in the ring for WRB’s Real Steel.
Atom and Zeus are going toe to toe, head to head in the ring. Zeus is beating Atom within an inch of his young robot life. Atom keeps getting up and giving it his all while laying some good smack down on Zeus. They survived all five rounds, now it’s time for the judges’ decision… You need to see the movie to know the rest.
I thought this movie would be like all the other dead-beat dad cliché movies – and it is in a way. When you add robots in the mix, it becomes something different. Don’t ask me why, but it does.
I walked into the theater already hating this movie and counting down the minutes until I see the credits. After the first 30 minutes, I was hooked. I would catch myself bobbing and weaving with the robot and getting excited for Max and Charlie after Atom won a fight and they’re celebrating. When the credits rolled, I walked out of there smiling.
If I had a child, I would definitely take them to this movie.
