Movie Review: Real Steel

Real Steel

Released:  2011

Rated:  PG-13

Genre:  Action, Sci-Fi

Length:  127 mins = 2 hrs 7 mins

Recommendation:  Oh YES!  Wonderful movie, one for everyone; with story line, action, and family love.

Synopsis:
Set in the near future, where robot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he's found a champion in a discarded robot.  During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father.

My Thoughts and Summary:
Charlie is a 'retired' boxer, struggling and taking chances with controlling robots in the boxing ring.  All the bets and charges to get new robots; he is in serious debt, bodily harm debt.  The mother of his 11-year-old son dies, and he receives notice from the state to come to a hearing over his rights.  The mothers sister wants to adopt him, Charlie is A-okay with it, but she is leaving for Italy with her husband for a month.  Charlie agrees to take the kid for the month, and a son that's more like him than either want to admit, just might help Charlie through his rough patch and grow up as well.

Hugh Jackman.  Is that enough to say?  Okay, I'll go on, but he is a nice bonus to a great movie.  I really enjoyed watching this one.  Yes, it's boxing and fighting, but it's also about a man who left his son and didn't play well with others, and always tried things his own way, finds his way back and to a straight line.  His son spends the summer with him, teaching him more than he thought an eleven year old could.

I kept saying Max, Charlie's son, was so much more like his father than he knew.  But, in a way he was more level headed than his dad.  He really made a difference in Charlie's life as they get closer.

I loved the boxing with machines.  This was a wonderful new take on the boxing scene, with a futuristic feel too.  We even grow a bond with the robot that the son saves, or saved him.  The story has a blend of the little guy with drive, can win or at least make a difference.

This movie was WELL received by the whole family.  I enjoyed the story, and the boxing action with the robots.  The kid loved it with the fun and action.  And my husband loved the movie as well.  Wonderful blend of life lessons, robots, fighting action, and humor.

They work their way up with the Robot fighting.  In the end, you get a realistic take on the little guy vs the big guy.  Will the little guy really triumph?  And there is a wonderful meaning to the story, not only in the robot fighting, but in family too.  A nice little lesson to be learned.

I have to say this is a must see.  I really didn't know what I was getting into, but with Hugh Jackman it had to be a good one.  And it was.