Real Steel

“Real Steel” is a boxing movie that focuses more on the trainer than it does on the boxer; think “Rocky” focusing on cranky ol’ Mickey rather than the eponymous Italian Stallion. Now, that may sound a bit crap, but with “Real Steel” it’s a plus, given that the boxer is a hunk of junk that can’t talk, emote or really do a whole lot outside of swinging its metallic mitts and taking a heap of hard hits. To be frank, this robotic character is no Wall-E, so it’s a relief the film’s attention is dedicated to the robot’s human trainers rather than the robot itself/himself.

The film is based on Richard Matheson’s short story “Steel,” which already got the live-action treatment with a 1963 episode of “The Twilight Zone.” Director-for-hire Shawn Levy’s big-screen adaptation is set in the near future, when robot boxing has won the world over; yes, sports fans are now less enticed by the intensity of two muscular human beings sweating and panting as they brutally brawl with each other, and are now more concerned with the sight of scraps of metal repeatedly bashing against other scraps of metal. [insert “Transformers” joke here]

Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”), an ex-boxer, is an amateur trainer of these robots, i.e. he controls them as they fight in the ring. He’s had mixed results with this, frequently having to owe money to men who threaten to beat him to a pulp if he doesn’t pay up; he rarely does. He’s that lovable rogue kinda character who’s immature and a bit of an ass, but the audience still roots for him in spite of his hardhearted attitude.

One day, he’s given the news that his ex-girlfriend has died and that the aunt and uncle of his eleven-year-old son Max (Dakota Goyo, “Thor”), whom Charlie abandoned, want full custody of the boy. Uncaring about Max’s future, Charlie signs off full custody to the aunt and uncle, but will have to take care of him until the aunt and uncle return from a three-month trip to Italy.

Soon enough, Max takes an interest in Charlie’s robot-boxing. Together, they find a veteran robot named Atom lying in a junkyard. Max drags Atom to the gym despite Charlie’s insistence not to; Charlie thinks the robot is useless; Max thinks the robot has potential. They power Atom up and discover he has the ability to mimic the actions of humans through sight. They enter him into a non-official fight. Atom is sure to lose. And they watch as Atom beats the nuts and bolts out of his brawny competitor; it turns out the old automaton has quite a bit of fighting fuel left in him.

Inevitably, Atom ends up fighting in the televised official leagues against robotic juggernauts who are much bigger and much stronger than him. There’s a bunch of action, so it’s a good job the film’s biggest asset is its action; the fights between the robotic characters are surprisingly compelling and relentlessly energetic, shot with spacial awareness and visual clarity. They’re sometimes tense, sometimes emotional, but always fun. It turns out Shawn Levy is quite the director of robot fights; maybe the “Transformers 4” gong should be taken off Michael Bay and given to Levy? No, wait, Levy made “Cheaper by the Dozen”…

The robots themselves are designed rather well. They’re big and bulky and heavy and look a little like Transformers (I’ll stop mentioning Transformers). They’ve been animated through use of motion-capture, much like the Na’vi in “Avatar” and the apes in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes;” this is very effective. Atom in particular seems to have been designed not necessarily in a cute way but with the idea of making him appear friendly and appealing; with his small glowing blue eyes, how could you not love him?

However, the film is not just one overblown rock ’em sock ’em robot action spectacle; no no, it’s also a family melodrama. Yes, there’s the drama between the absent father and the abandoned son that acts as the heart of the story. Side note: it seems it’s impossible to take part in combat sports nowadays without having family troubles; first it was “The Fighter,” then it was “Warrior,” now it’s “Real Steel.”

The family drama works perfectly fine; it serves its purpose in making the film feel like something more than just a movie about robots repeatedly thwacking one another in the nuts and bolts. The relationship between the father and the son is convincing as they initially meet, clash and fight, and then bond together over the professional bot-boxing; sure, it’s predictable and wreaks of Menahem Golan’s “Over the Top” (minus the robots), but it works.

“Real Steel” is a fun film and nothing more; it works perfectly fine on those terms. As a piece of audience-pleasing entertainment, it’s a mostly satisfying success that you can like without feeling guilty. It’s cool, it’s fast, it’s exciting, it’s visually pleasing and it’s dramatically adequate. I’d say that’s pretty good going for a film that’s essentially “Robot Wars” on steroids.

7/10