Review of Real Steel (2011) by Jtwstephens — 07 Oct 2011

I was hesitant to see this movie. Based on the previews, I had a pretty clear cut vision of what this movie was - a Rocky clone, but with robots! Robots! And Wolverine! These last two bits are important. Robots are awesome, right? And Hugh Jackman is awesome, too!. So, based on these two things alone, I bit the bullet and gave this movie a chance.

The end result? I wasn't at all surprised. At all. About ANYTHING. You know everything that's going to happen before it does. But the action is visceral and believable, the 'bots are badass, Jackman gives a great performance and actually makes me cheer and hope for this character. The boy wonder (Dakota Goyo) initially made me very nervous (a bad preteen protagonist can ruin movies for me), but ultimately he did a "pretty okay" job, albeit a little over-the-top.

I don't regret seeing this movie and look forward to the sequel.

Pros:

- Robots!

- Hugh Jackman does a standup job and creates a good character.

- Great fight choreography. They really nailed this.

- Good, modern special effects.

- They somehow make ROBOT BOXING sound like a legitimate, believable "sport of the future".

Cons:

- Kid sidekick never annoyed me, but I certainly didn't care about him.

- The inner workings of the 'bots is never really explained. No science and very little character.