'Real Steel'

'Real Steel' (PG-13) (3 STARS)

Written By John Gatins based on short story "Steel" by Richard Matheson
Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Hope Davis, Kevin Durand, James Rebhorn, Olga Fonda, Karl Yune

Again I walked into a movie dreading what I was about to see but behold the power of movies. "Real Steel" is a very entertaining movie that gets the job done, kids will eat it up in a good way. I was surprised how I got into this movie hook, line and sinker. The robot fights didn't get to be too much, the father/son melodrama was sweet and there is a nice little love story. The strength of the movie is the interplay between father Hugh Jackman and son Dokota Goyo. Both have good chemistry together and Goyo is great at not being too cloying like most kid actors.

"Real Steel" stars Jackman as Charlie Keaton who is a washed up boxer down on his luck and in deep gambling debt. He is approached by the sister of a woman he dated and had a son with. Charlie doesn't want anything to do with the kid but a certain money proposition changes his mind. The movie is set in the future where human boxing has been replaced with robot boxing. The father and son find an old twisted heap of metal that used to be a robot boxer. They name it/him Atom and fix him up but Atom is known as a sparring bot, small and scrappy but considered weak. The movie is based on a short story that was also a "Twilight Zone" episode.

There is also a love interest for Charlie and her name is Bailey and she shares a boxing gym with Charlie. Bailey is played by Evangeline Lilly (Kate in "Lost") and Lilly is good here, she might have a big screen future ahead of her. The chemistry between Lilly ands Jackman is great and I actually was touched by their relationship and rooted for them to hook up. I also was surprised by how well the relationship between Charlie and Max grows. This could have been insufferable and cloying but there is some good dialogue and scenes between the two. I also think the boxing scenes and the final fight were surprisingly compelling and had me rooting for Atom and Charlie. These are robots and this could have been a soulless Rock Em Sock Em Robots pain in the butt but it is deeper than that.

By the final fight I was swept away in Charlie making a comeback, Atom winning the fight and for Max, Charlie and Bailey becoming a family. Jackman's Charlie is a shallow loser who runs away from conflicts but Jackman does a great job making us like him when we shouldn't. The movie also does a great job at giving Atom a little of a personality. The villianous robot and the owner make a great team of bad guys which helps us root for Atom. So when we get to the final fight we are totally immersed in this World.

The movie does copy a lot of the plot from the original "Rocky" movie with a little "Rocky IV" thrown in. This did not bother me though and a movie that copies off another can be good if it is done with energy and it's own personality. The father/son story reminded me of the 1979 boxing movie "The Champ" with Jon Voight but this is way better, "The Champ" was a horrible and phony movie.

So "Real Steel" is a fun movie that kids will absolutely love and some parents might dig. The movie would not succeed though without the charismatic performances of Jackman, Lilli and Goyo. There is also a nice turn by character actor Kevin Durand as a despicable bad guy who Charlie owes money to. The Atom robot is strangely likable and a movie with countless robot fights could have grown tiresome but they don't. Compare this movie with a piece of crap like the latest "Transformers" movie which has no soul and beats us into submission and you will find something more fun here.