Review: Real Steel

A scene from 'Real Steel'. Courtesy DreamWorks.

To my great surprise, Real Steel is a rock em’, sock em’ robot boxing movie with a lot of heart. It’s reminiscent of the Saturday matinees I remember fondly from my childhood, and invokes the same feeling as watching something like Ghostbusters or E.T.

Set in the near future, the film tells the story of former boxer Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) who now controls robots in the ring as no one wants to watch real boxing anymore. Even robots can lose though, and Charlie’s lose often so he owes a lot of people money. When his estranged son Max (Toronto’s own Dakota Goyo) enters his life, he makes a deal to sell him to the boy’s aunt and uncle (Hope Davis and James Rebhorn) without hesitation.

There is one condition: he must keep Max for the summer until the aunt and uncle return from a previously planned trip to Italy. You can see where this is going, of course, and yes, Charlie and Max form a bond when they find an old robot in a junk yard and begin training him for battle together. It’s all very touching and makes for one of the better father-son movies to come along in recent memory.

Based on Richard Matheson’s short story Steel, which was previously adapted as an episode of the The Twilight Zone in 1963, the film is a mix of Rocky meets Bicycle Thieves meets Robot Jox. It all works thanks mainly to Jackman, who is perfect in the role of Charlie. You go from loathing him to cheering for him without ever noticing the transition. I can’t see any other actor doing this as smoothly as Jackman did.

For a newcomer, Goyo is also remarkable and the chemistry between him and Jackman is flawless. We need more kid actors like this; he’s engaging and not annoying. Thunder Bay-native Kevin Durand also delivers a fun performance as a Texas promoter on the hunt for Charlie. Unfortunately the one female lead, Evangeline Lilly, is wasted on the sidelines and never amounts to anything other than good looks.

Having directed Night at the Museum and its sequel, Shawn Levy is no stranger to this genre of film. With Real Steel he shows his Spielberg side (who happens to be a producer) and has created a knock-out classic for the whole family.

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