I originally decided to wait until Real Steel came out on DVD/Blu-Ray before checking it out (this is coming from someone who usually enjoys this kind of film; see Transformers: Dark Of The Moon), but due to the positive reception it's received so far, I decided to give it a watch online. I'll admit that I was pretty surprised with what I found, as it's one of the better family-friendly films released this year. As I stated before, there will be some mild spoilers in the following review, so skip to the final paragraph or so if you don't want to know anything about what happens in the film.
Real Steel (2011)
Rating:
Starring:
Hugh Jackman
Dakota Goyo
Evangeline Lilly
Kevin Durand
Hope Davis
Running Time:
2 hr. 7 min.
Synopsis:
A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near future [the year 2020], where the sport of boxing has gone hi-tech, “Real Steel” stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.
As stated before, I wasn't really in a hurry to watch
Real Steel when I first saw the trailer. The trailers looked entertaining, but otherwise I didn't feel motivated to watch it right away. At the same time, it still kept my interest. Hugh Jackman's been a favorite actor of mine since his fantastic performances as Wolverine in the
X-Men films, while I've enjoyed Shawn Levy's prior films
Night At The Museum and even
Cheaper By The Dozen. It sounded like an interesting collaboration indeed, and when I saw that the early reception was rather positive, I decided to give the film a watch to see if there's any heart underneath that steel.
Shawn Levy has recently been wanting to break free from the family-film stereotype, which was obvious with last year's
Date Night (which was nothing like, say,
Night At The Museum) and now
Real Steel. Though the latter is PG-13, there isn't much here that would keep kids from enjoying it other than some of the action being slightly over-the-top. Otherwise, it feels more like a PG film than anything else to me, so kids should definitely like this.
Speaking of the action, one of the best things about the film is its awesome robot-on-robot action. It is basically
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots: The Movie mixed in with
Transformers, but it isn't all bad. While it makes the film seem unoriginal at times, it's overall entertaining, and keeps the viewers' attention rather well. The film's balance of action and slower scenes is mostly even, still being action-packed but leaves enough room for character development. And of course, that's something I look for when watching a film - enough spectacle to keep me hooked, but enough character development to make me enjoy the characters.
Real Steel does a great job at both.
The acting is very solid. As expected, Hugh Jackman was excellent as lead man Charlie Kenton. He makes the character very believable, showing what to like about him and not to like (the latter is rather obvious at the beginning of the film). Dakota Goyo (who was previously seen earlier this summer as a younger
Thor) is good as Kenton's son Max, standing out from most child performances which are usually mediocre. Evangeline Lilly is pretty good as gym-runner Bailey, while the rest of the cast is rather well done.
When it comes to flaws, most of them are mostly nitpicking. As stated before, the robot boxing was fun/entertaining, but felt too much like a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em movie at times(which has been a complaint about the film since it was announced), thus relinquishing the originality aspect from the film. Also, the film DOES seem a little kiddish at times. While Goyo isn't as kiddish as most child actors today per say, he still seems a bit too immature at times (especially at the ending). Still, he's better than others in his league. Other than the aforementioned flaws, it's hard to think of any single ones that stand out in particular.
In the end,
Real Steel definitely surprised me. Featuring solid acting, non-stop action, and plenty of heart, it's one of the better films you can take your kids to this year, and certainly a nice fall 2011 treat. I can't recommend this if you're looking for a truly amazing film, however, mostly due to quite a bit of un-originality (they really should've called it
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em or something, that title's a better description of the film overall), but for those who don't mind robots beating the crap out of each other (
Transformers fans?), this is definitely a must-see. Kinda hard to see how a sequel will work, but if it's made, I'll certainly check it out.