“Real Steel” is a Cheesy Clunker
A movie featuring a prestigious cast including Hugh Jackman, Hope Davis and Anthony Mackie should be better than Shawn Levy’s silver screen version of the Rock Em Sock Em Robots. In the sci-fi Real Steel, these robots engage in high-tech boxing matches for their human controllers, one of whom is Charlie Kenton (Jackman), a bankrupt ex-boxer and small-time promoter with aspirations for glory and nothing to show for it. When he discovers he has an estranged 11-year old son, Max (Toronto-area native Dakota Goyo in his debut), Kenton leverages both money and temporary custody of his new-found son to build and train a championship robot. Big boxing robots and bigger, campier set pieces ensue.
I’ll give the film credit for some imagination, capably used to visualize those boxing arenas, both underground and legitimate, as well as the robots that come in every size, luster and ethnicity. Yes, ethnic robots. While the movie is set in 2020, the settings are quite unfuturistic except for the fancier gadgets. Nonetheless, I liked how the film depicts the future. The details are admirable and is sure to bring out the inner techy within the audience. For example, there’s a junkyard with robot parts and even those of a space shuttle, symbolic of our obsession with the gargantuan and the disposable .
Jackman’s approach to his downtrodden character, lacks that glint of worn-down pessimism that he needs to be truly compelling. His accent work is also imperfect but he starts picking up steam later with naturalistic tics as well as developing rapports with other characters. Evangeline Lilly, who plays Charlie’s love interest, is pretty much a more sexually desirable version of Max’s aunt, a harridan who nags Charlie but that’s also rooted in the unrealized potential that she sees within him. She doesn’t seem to know how to connect her emotions from one scene into another but she’s believable as the woman who chugs beers in a sports bar.
The most polarizing performance is Goyo’s, who reminds me of Roger the alien’s abusive child-boyfriend in that one episode in “American Dad.” Despite his breakable exterior and cringe-inducing hip-hop numbers, he embodies someone who can tell a big, hulking adult like Charlie what to do.
The actors’ inconsistencies coincides with the spotty script. Sometimes an emotional scene that could have used a musical cue would have none instead and when Danny Elfman’s score is used, it simply feels manipulative. There is also a pattern at work here in which a decent scene is followed with a clunky montage. And the ending, although realistic, doesn’t resolve the film’s main conflict.
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Shawn Levy is the main reason I don’t want to see it. I’ve seen enough of his work to not be impressed at all. “Date Night” was just very mediocre for my tastes with a lot of bad CGI backgrounds that I found to be very distracting.
Everything about this film says mediocre. I’m not sure the premise really grabs my attention – if it was darker, perhaps it would be more interesting. I’ll give this one a miss until it arrives on TV.
Steven and Dan: Oh…. Me not being able to see Date Night is a long and possibly unprofessional story (I’d watch it just to see Carrell and Fey go head to head). Shawn Levy directing explains Marky Mark’s computer bunker. I imagine that the techiness is more appropriate here.
Levy had a ‘director for hire’ vibe, which happens to the best of them. He’s a nice, hometown boy and it seemed that he had a lot of fun making this movie. He just has to check the premises in his movies next time.
Hi, Paolo and company:
I’ve no doubt that legions of seven to 13 year old boys are going to whine, cajole, connive and threaten to hold their breaths until they turn purple to get their parents to take them to see Real Steel.
Kids are this film’s demographic and it’s going to work. Considering there’s not a lot of romantic ‘Mushy Stuff’ to get in the way of the ‘Rock ‘em! Sock ‘em! Robots’ action. The parents will just have to endure it. Or as Dan posits, wait until it shows up on Cinemax, Encore or HBO.
“Jackman’s approach to his downtrodden character lacks that glint of worn-down pessimism that he needs to be truly compelling”
Well put. It was definitely missing something. He seemed too blasé to really be a broken down bum. He was kind of just happily going through the motions, as if he wasn’t really aware of how bad his life sucked.
The sound from “Real Steel” kept bleeding over into the theater where I was watching “50/50.” Stupid robots.
Also, ethnic robots? Really?
Transformers style!
Jack: Because of backlogs/procrastination, I’m swearing off good new movies until next week and with Titanic this afternoon and an impending horror festival that I got Facebook invited to, I probably won’t set eyes on Senna until November. Eek.
fogsmoviereviews: I can’t word this properly right now, but I was going to say something about how this (am I projecting?) movie concerns itself more with affirming father-son relationships than showing Charlie as a bum. But the movie shouldn’t have been lazy and Jackman should be able to cross a bigger arc than the movie provides him.
Nick: I probably shouldn’t have said ethnic robots because it’s only one of them that’s dressed as a samurai. they don’t have the Ebonic accents of the Transformers robots. These robots don’t talk which thank God.
Thanks for sitting through this one for us, Paolo. I’m definitely thinking I’m not the right demographic for this.
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