REAL STEEL

Real Steel, a 2011 sci-fi robotic action movie was directed by Shawn Levy, a Canadian-American who as directed movies such as Pink Panther, Night at the Museum and Date Night just to mention a few. Steven Spielberg, who needs no introduction to any movie enthusiast, is the executive producer.

Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman from X-Men) is a former boxing man who owns a robot called Ambush. The robot’s first fight, in this 2020 based movie; is with a bull which tears Ambush apart. He then gets the news that his ex-girlfriend, whom he had fathered a boy with, had passed away. He is supposed to go to court and sign over the custodial rights of his son to his ex’s sister, Debra. An opportunity presents itself for Charlie to make some money as well as apend a few months with his overly smart son when Debra and his husband go for a second honeymoon to Tuscany, Italy.

Charlie purchases another robot that had been competing in the WRB (World Robot Boxing League) called Noisy Boy. In its first fight, Charlie dismisses young Max Kenton’s (Dakota Goyo) advice and destroys his second robot in two weeks.

Max gets himself a robot in a robot junkyard that had saved his life when he fell off a cliff. The robot, Atom, with the boxing skills of Charlie and the brains of Max manages to win its first fight. They are then invited to participate in a WRB match. There, Atom once again unexpectedly wins crashing WRB robot Twin Cities. Max, in no 11 year old fashion, gets on the mic and challenges Zeus, the WRB champion to a fight after their owner had tried to purchase Atom before the match.

In this final match, where Zeus is expected to win within the first round finds the resilient Atom putting up a good fight though he’s knocked down severally. Things get worse when his hearing circuits gets destroyed in the fight. Charlie has to engage in shadow boxing where Atom follows his actions. The boxing leads to the emotional overwhelming of his son and girlfriend Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly) who had both been craving to see Charlie in boxing action.

The movie gives a new twist to the “robots of the future” stories. Shawn Levy also directs as he should and the lighting and camera is commendable. The producers though might have done better with the futuristic presentation of the movie. It’s a movie worth anyone’s watch especially if sci-fi is where your eyes thrive.