Cinema review: Real Steel

In the near future boxing robots are all the rage.

Basically this is Rocky all over again, this time with robots instead of human beings. Now I understand that the idea sound terrible but in reality is awesome. First we have to remember that it has been years since we had a full blown Rocky style boxing movie, and by the way this is at least a new film and not one of those dreadful remakes that Hollywood insist at throwing in our direction. Moreover I still remember Rocky fights were never really that realistic or we would have never got that endless jokes about rocky fighting against a Robocop or an Alien (Which are by the way the seeds from whom after a few years was born Predator).

The fights are wonderful if unoriginal. They really lifted everything from Rocky. The underdog robot is an old sparring partner model created to absorb an incredible amount of punishment, the champion robot is named Zeus, and basically everything comes straight from Stallone’s classic. I must admit that even knowing practically how everything was going due to me still remembering the original I got really excited and involved in them, they really managed to copy the primal energy that made Rocky such an entertaining experience.

On the other side where the robots are cleverly designed to create an engaging experience sadly the human side of the movie is lacking. It’s not the actors fault, Jackman is still an extremely talented actor able to really connect with the audience, Evangeline Lily is likable and managed to rekindle the spark of the first seasons of Lost while the boy actor, Dakota Goyo, gave it all in his performance, probably aided by some of the best lines in the movie.

The real problem is the Jackman character, Charlie Kenton, is simply too unlikable. I understand that this is supposed to be a father son story where the absentee father becomes a better person and reconnect with his son(Which by the way is lifted straight from another Stallone vehicle “Over the Top”) but in the first half of the movie he is simply too much of an idiot, the utter stupidity of his actions were cringe worthy and in a movie like this, where we are supposed to get behind the hero and suffer vicariously with him a so great dissonance is not a good thing.

I also smell some hasty rewrite with Evangeline Lily character, Bailey, who after a long introduction is reduced to the role of “Fiancée who watches from afar and cheers at our heroes”. This is really notable where her supposed specialty, she should be the robot expert, is taken over by an eleven years old high on too much soda intake.

In the end this is not a perfect movie but the fights, and the ending, are so good that they make it worthy a trip to the cinema.