Real Steel Review

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last review, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been stacking up things to write about. First off is Real Steel, the film starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Shawn Levy that is based on a short story by Richard Matheson. The movie is set in the near future where the sport of boxing has transitioned from human fighters to robots ala Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots on steroids.

I watched the film in IMAX and the visuals and sounds were great. The movie hits all of the right buttons when it comes to underdog sports stories. The parallels to Rocky and almost any other coming of age story with a kid who is reunited with his absentee father are definitely there. One of the amazing things about the movie was the complete lack of anything too overtly sexual. There is a love interest, but the PG-13 lines never even come close to being crossed. There is some violence, beyond the robot-on-robot action, but not too much.

Overall, it was an enjoyable movie that leaves you feeling good about where it ends. My main nit to pick here is the relationship between the son and Hugh Jackman’s character in the first half of the film. I don’t enjoy seeing kids treated bad by people who should be their parents, but that is just part of the plot and setup. This is a fun movie and falls somewhere between 3 and 4 Mick Happies.  We’ll call it 4 for the fun ride that it is and hope that the sequel gets the go ahead in the near future. Almost makes me want to get the Xbox Live Arcade game…almost.