Real Steel

'Real Steel' is a boxing movie. And like all good boxing movies, that means it's about redemption and that it has a lot of heart. 'Real Steel's' turbulent first act pays off big in the end in some surprising ways. It's not ground breaking, but what it does, it does well.

The characters in this movie get off to a rocky start. Hugh Jackman plays a lowlife degenerate who makes every wrong choice and appears to have no redeeming qualities what-so-ever. It's not until nearly the end of the first act that he does anything that makes me want to follow him for the rest of the movie. What follows is a long, hard road to becoming the good-guy. It's not the type of hero that audiences are used to seeing Jackman play, but he pulls it off well.

The acting in general is top notch. Even the kid, a venerable kiss-of-death to any movie (in this one played by Dakota Goyo) puts on a decent performance. And he seems to have no qualms appearing along side Hollywood A-listers. He might be one to watch for in the future.

If I were to try to find something wrong with this movie, it would probably be the characterization of the lead robot, Atom. It is, for the most part, rather bland and one dimensional. Now I have to admit, I was expecting/hoping for a kind of 'Old Yeller' tale with this guy. But rather than making Atom a character in his own right, he's more of a mechanism for the Jackman and Goyo characters to connect. Still, they kept saying/implying there was something special about him, but we never find out what or why. It almost feels like a whole subplot was cut out of the movie. I can't help but feel this was a missed opportunity to do something really cool, something to personify the father/son relationship in a non-living character.

But that might be asking too much from this kind of movie. 'Real Steel' is about a rocky father/son relationship and boxing. And it does both those things well. This movie is good for what it is.

If you like boxing or sporting movies, or flicks with big robots that pound each other, you'll probably enjoy 'Real Steel.' It may not be much, but it's got a lot of heart.