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Whir, Rumble, Rattle and Crash
I went to see “Real Steel” this past weekend, and all I can say is that it was a real clunker.
It’s a shame really because it had all the right elements or should I say parts going for it too.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The year is 2020, and the world of “Real Steel” is ruled by Michael Bay.
I kid of course, but it does look very much like a Transformers movie, even though it’s more like a “Rocky” movie with robots.
“You knocked my block off!”
It’s a futuristic world of robot wrestling. The main character Charlie (played by Hugh Jackman) who was once a prize fighter, has been out of a job for years since boxing between humans was outlawed. Now, only robots are allowed in the ring.
Now Charlie is a robot promoter (think Don King for Optimus Prime)
It might be the year 2020 but apparantley our economy is still in the hole because Charlie is in debt up to his eyeballs.
Enter Charlies long lost 11year old son, Max into the picture.
Charlie abandoned Max as a baby, but his mom has suddenly died and that makes Charlie, Max’s new parent. You know where this is going, right? The rest is pretty much predictable.
After a long, long, long start, Max finds and rebuilds an old robot named Atom.
(Apparantley 11 yr. old kids know how to do these kinds of things in the near future purely from playing video games. And that's not me trying to be smart. They actually say this in the movie!)
Atom is a vintage sparring robot built for taking hits and comes with a cool “shadow mode” feature that allows it to copy the moves of it’s opponent as well as it’s trainer.
This allows Atom to act more “human” than any of the other robots in the movie, which it needs in order for the characters in the movie as well as the the audience to connect with him.
And connect he does! In fact, I connected more with Atom than with the humans.
And I guess that’s the whole idea, with a film like “Real Steel” about fighting robots, the main attraction has got to be the robots! That’s really what we all came to see right?
I guess I shouldn’t expect the story to be good as well now should I?
It’s really just a lame filler between the big bot boxing scenes.
Silly me to want both.
Anyway, all of this of course leads up to a big “end - boss” match with a huge robot named Zeus.
Packs A Weak Punch
When making a film for 10 year old boys, it doesn't have to be good, necessarily -just good enough,/i>. And that's exactly what "Real Steel" is:good enough. It's good enough to get its target audience rooting and hooting, and good enough to make it a box office winner.
Beyond that, it has very little punch!
Rated: PG 13
Trivia
-The movie is based on "Steel" a 1956 short story called “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson. In 1964, it became an episode on the “The Twilight Zone.”
-If audiences like “Real Steel”, a sequel is already waiting in the wings. DreamWorks announced back in April they were already developing a follow-up in case the movie is a hit.
-Sugar Ray Leonard was a consultant on the fight scenes and were motion-captured using professional boxers.
-The final fight scene is a virtual punch-for-punch recreation of the fight from Rocky IV.
-In an another tie to “Rocky”, the world champion robot is named "Zeus", and in Rocky, the champion is named "Apollo" Creed. In mythology, Apollo is the son of Zeus.
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Posted by oxyjen on Oct 10, 2011 |
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