Real Steel

I had low expectations and I am sure many people did so too, however I did rather quite enjoy the movie for various factors in which I will List: Every scene had purpose - No pointless scenes which have no impact on the audience. The Ending - Original and Motivating, showed it had a moral to the story (If you watched the movie, you would know)

HOWEVER, unfortunately the kid put me off immensely. I appreciate his confidence in acting but his screaming and his cheesy lines were just off putting. I also noticed that his technological understanding was ridiculously high, which is rather unrealistic...And that is an understatement.

That being said, I can sense a 'Real Steel 2' and would hope it turns out as good as this first one. Sequels are very hard to perfect especially for this movie, but I digress.

This movie is worth watching and if you plan on watching it, be sure to prepare your tissues.

I wasn't expecting much when I saw this movie - and I'm not really a fan of movies where kid's are the lead - but, I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

Even though this was a "formula / underdog" type of movie, it had me cheering for Atom, Hugh Jackman was great and so were the cast of characters.

The CGI was excellent, I really connected to the characters, and it was just a fun, guilty-pleasure (c'mon, boxing robots - who DOESN'T want that !) type of movie.

Not quite "A Space Odyssey:2000" but then again, it's not supposed to be.

FUN. ENTERTAINING. GREAT ACTION.

Recommended !

Real Steel is directed by Shawn Levy and collectively adapted to the screen by John Gatins, Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven from a Richard Matheson short story called Steel. It stars Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis and James Rebhorn. Music is scored by Danny Elfman and cinematography by Mauro Fiore.

Set in the near future, robot boxing is a big crowd pulling sport. After a struggling robot operator is introduced to an 11-year-old son he has never known, they stumble upon a discarded robot at a junk yard....

We can all moan about the mimicry of an idea and the clichés that dominate Real Steel, but you really got to hand it to the makers for what they have achieved. They have crafted a family film that's very much perfect in this day and age. The story is one that any adult Sylvester Stallone fan can acknowledge and appreciate, the human heartbeat pleasingly steady, while the premise of big colourful robots beating the crap out of each other delights youngsters and us adults who are still young at heart. Film pretty much does what any other film of this type does, lays on the syrup in the last quarter where second chances and family strife come thundering through the plotting. Undeniably it's hugely derivative, events are joystick operated to get an emotional response from a family audience, while product placement reins and the script often sags under the weight of unoriginality. But it does uplift the spirit and getting to the end is easy since it's so much berserker fun. Yes it's the robot Atom, the people's champion, yes it's David vS Goliath and yes! It's Balboa vS Creed. Nothing wrong with that really.

The cast don't really have to offer up much beyond being adequate within the context of the material, though a muscular Jackman finds good paternal chemistry with young Goyo. In fact Goyo is pleasingly not annoying, always a bonus is that. Inevitably the robots are the stars, they're a triumph of design and visual effects and a sight for sore eyes, while Levy has a good handle on staging the fight sequences - even when cribbing from Balboa. The near future look is terrific as well, with Fiore's colour photography very appealing. Coining in over $290 million at the worldwide box office (over £180 million in profit), Real Steel found the family audience it was looking for, proving once again that there is a market for simple and effective popcorn carnage. It's not high art or intelligently scripted, but was anyone seriously thinking that was going to be the case here? If you want brains with this premise then seek out Twilight Zone episode "Steel", starring the excellent Lee Marvin, otherwise just sit back and enjoy the ride and let the botty bots and human interest raise the pulse and gladden the heart respectively. 7/10

Home format release is a sparkling print, extras are annoyingly short but the blooper reel is fun, we get a stunt deconstruction, and we learn about the influence a certain Mr. Spielberg had on the production.

It's always funny watching old movies that depict the future with all this brand new tech, like 90's sci-fi's thinking we'd have flying cars, or in this case Real Steel thinking we'd have robot boxing fights for entertainment in 2020. I remember loving this when I first watched it over a decade ago and after a recent run of disappointing movies I wanted to see something I knew or thought I'd love so I went with this.

Straight off the bat, I noticed how much more believable cgi and vfx used to look in the 2010's and you can see that with other movies like iron man or transformers, while new movies now just look like video games more often than not. I loved how even though it's set in the 'future', the surroundings felt relatable, not all super shiny, slick new tech, adds to the plausibility of it all even though it's scifi.

It's not complex plot or avant-garde script because it's made just for fun. Has everything you'd want in a feel good action flick; it has flare, blood pumping fights, great soundtrack, story, carnage, an underdog to root for and it even has heart as we get to see a father and son bond together. The movie is sweet and heartfelt at it's core behind all the metal bashing. One thing that stood apart for me about the movie is the end, it ends at the perfect moment, most movies would want a moment of reflection or something after an epic finale like that but Real Steel leaves you while your adrenaline's still pumping. If you haven't watched it, go watch it, and if you have, rewatch.

Just watched this movie with my 8 yo daughter and it was a lot of fun, she really loved it and I thought it was very well done and easy to watch. Lot's of very negative reviews not sure what they were expecting, I don't think anyone involved was planning a trip to the Oscars. Sometimes it's good to just relax and not over critique everything.