Review of Real Steel (2011) by Miguel R — 01 Aug 2015

Real Steel.

Rating: B.

I just watched "Real Steel" for a second time. My memory of the movie was that it had a lot of good things going for it, but that it ultimately let me down. This viewing served to remind me why I felt that way. As I watched the movie, I was constantly in awe of how much I was enjoying it. The bot fight scenes are well choreographed and they are done so well that I cannot even tell what is CG and what is not, which is massively impressive in my book. I also really liked the father/son story line that drives the plot forward. There was nothing amazingly original about it, but it was done well by Hollywood standards. All of that covers the first hour+ of the movie, but then, they wrap up the relationship side of the story and quickly move to one final bot battle that seems to go on for so long, that I completely lost any emotional highs that had built up to that point. This is all coming from the perspective of a middle aged man, mind you. I was watching this with a pair of six year old boys. Their interest seemed to drift in and out of the movie between the fighting and dialog heavy scenes, where they seemed to actually really get excited by the last battle. "Real Steel" is totally a good movie. It is just a shame that they could not come up with a more satisfying conclusion.