Review of Real Steel (2011) by Dov D — 13 Sep 2013

Director Shawn Levy's history of making below average comedies is more than evident in his latest film Real Steel. The type of melodramatic sentimentality pulsing through this movie's veins may work within the confines of an absurdist comedy, but the slow-motion character shots and triumphant orchestral music are hollow without any real character development.

Real Steel employs every trick in the book to lure the audience into rooting for the characters without providing anything real to foster emotional connectivity.From a visual perspective, this movie is incredible.

The CGI and editing are incredibly well done. The acting is solid as well. There are times when Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo overact there parts to near ridiculous extents, but since they prove to be capable in other scenes, I place the blame on Levy.

The script seems to be so riddled with cliches that overacting is the only semi-believable way to play them. For all of it's flaws, there is a compelling underdog element to the story that, even amongst the cheesiness, manages to tug at my heart a bit.

The world Levy creates here is thorough and detailed, something that I've always been a sucker for. Bottom line, most of the viewing public will eat this film up, but to the well versed cinefile, this is grade A Hollywood emotional extortion at it's finest.

.. But it's a surprisingly enjoyable example of it.