: Real Steel
This movie is a fascinating blend of genres. On the one hand, its plot is the same as Rocky or Invictus, yet it has a sci-fi twist that makes it feel fresh and little different. It’s a robot movie with heart, if you will.
The story’s set in the future where robot boxing is the norm. It’s a realistically done future, raw and gritty, with just a few differences from today. I really liked it because it made robots seem normal. The robots are extremely well done, too: I couldn’t tell if they were animatronic or CGI.
The movie’s key flaw is that the mechanics of robots and robot boxing are never explained. We get hints and shadows of hints, but it’s very unclear exactly what the rules are, if there are rules, or how anything works. For instance, the robots are apparently not autonomous: they are controlled via remotes by humans on the sidelines. Yet the championship robot (“Zeus”) supposedly has an AI that can anticipate anything. Isn’t that a contradiction? The film also never makes it clear exactly what makes our hero robot so special. It’s hinted that he has special capabilities, but those are never revealed. His human operators are obviously special, but if it’s their specialness that helps him win then what does he offer? Wouldn’t any robot body work?
Despite these major flaws, though, the full is a rousing success. I mean that most literally. The young boy who finds the robot in a junkyard and encourages his former-boxer father to teach it to box is a triumph and rules the movie. He’s such a spunky kid you can’t help rooting for him. The kid’s such a wonderful blend of childish innocence and hard-luck toughness that you want him to succeed. It’s actually believable his dance moves with the robot before each boxing match create a world-wide phenomenon.
Is Real Steel a perfect film? Definitely not. But it’s surprisingly fun, warm, and a great family film. Though there’s violence, it’s mostly robot-oriented. It’s a film that doesn’t succumb to its own cheesiness, doesn’t talk down to ten-year-olds, and has a number of genuinely teary-eyed moments. Recommended.
Topic: [/movie] |
