I had seen the trailer for Real Steel probably twenty some times in the last six months to a year leading up the the film's US release. Every time I saw the trailer for the movie I shook my head in disgust. Every time I thought, don't we have enough robot movies and aren't there too many movies about fighting? It seemed that Real Steal would be a mix of movies like The Fighter and Transformers, but on a smaller scale. And that is a good analysis of the movie. It is not as good as The Fighter and the robots aren't as cool as those in Transformers.
The movie itself isn't great, but it isn't horrible either. The movie is a good movie to take kids to, because of its overly cliched plot and stereotypical child actor who plays a kid who is much older than his years. Since when do kids that are ten act like they are sixteen? Casting may have been the problem here, or maybe there was a larger problem of writing. The other main character is played by Hugh Jackman. His character is nearly as problematic as the know it all child. Jackman's character is unlikeable and pretty much an ass. Both characters make for a movie in which the leads are wholly uninspiring and unlikeable.
Also many supporting characters seem just to have been put into the movie in order to take up screen space. Most are undeveloped and really pointless to the movie. All the supporting characters attend the final fighting tournament and all seem to be wedded to the plot and tournament, yet they don't actually have any stake in it from what we had seen earlier in the movie. The lack of development makes the film weak.
A robot of Atom is introduced in the film which fights in a tournament. Atom is a weak old robot. Somehow we are supposed to believe he can actually defeat the big and technologically advanced robots. The movie is not Rocky and robots, unlike Rocky, are not likeable. To show how a robot, which has not emotions or humanity, can defeat big robots by using humanity, is absurd. Also, there is the issue to whether Atom can actually understand humans or only mirror them. This is not explained at all and we are left guessing about this the whole movie.
Overall Real Steel is rather weak, but not a entirely bad film. Despite all its flaws it is still enjoyable and somewhat likeable. It has good graphics and and underdog story which help save it from its despair.
Grade: C
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