Customer Reviews

Real Steel (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Here's Real Steel in a nutshell. Remember that old board game called Rock Em' Sock 'Em Robots? Well now it's a movie. I mean the old game was just two robots fighting it out in a boxing ring. That's Real Steel. Rocky with hydraulic fluid. Your average underdog story. Add a love interest tired of her beau staying the underdog and a dysfunctional father/son relationship and you pretty much hit all the standard marks for an average plot line. I know that's what I thought when I was hearing about the movie. However when I saw the trailers something about it told me this was going to be a really fun movie to watch. Sure enough it was.

So Real Steel is essentially the same, tired old story told that has been spun in Hollywood over and over again, but with robots. Sounds mediocre, huh? Unoriginal plot points is actually the norm these days. Only Real Steel hits these marks with such gusto and polish that it really stands out in that rat race. It's not a masterpiece of script and story, mind you. But then again that's not the intent. This is a feel good, popcorn movie through and through. It's good to see one that at least takes its audience seriously enough to make a well thought out escape.

Lets start off with our main character Charlie (Hugh Jackman). To put it simply he is a jerk for better half of the movie. I mean the kind of jerk you just simply cannot like. Eventually the jerk gets a clue and starts to become the kind of guy you can't help but root for. This takes take a well written script and a talented actor to make the jerk and his eventual turnaround believable. You gotta give Jackman credit for his portrayal of Charlie. It's a character with a lot of heart, even when you hate him.

Next character of focus is Charlie's estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo). As kid actors go we have a winner. Enough teen indignant defiance to carry the family feuding and enough big eyed wonder of a child to carry the story. From there you have a very good ensemble of supporting actors. Again good, solid acting with very few boughs of melodrama (most of which just feels like it was needed).

Since this is a movie about fighting robots the "real" stars have to be just as good as the live actors. The robots in the film all come in a wide variety of designs and demeanor. More so the designs also give off a lot of character. The starring robot, Atom, has just enough characteristics to make him the likeable robot with stuff like rounded features on the face and glowing blue 'eyes'. It's not just with the look of the robot that keep you interested, which can range from junkyard mean to dark and polished shiny monsters, but also with other qualities like poise and stance, how they walk, even how they fight. The production used motion capture technology used in the movie Avatar and had boxing star Suger-Ray Leonard advise in the fight scenes. Again the results show a refinement in design and execution that makes the whole experience with the 'bot feel more real and organic.

The story flows with good pacing. It's not all fights all the time, and the off-time is worth watching. The underdog success story at first feels like it stays in the under part for a while, but then again that's part of the charm as you see just how much Charlie screws up his life. When we are full on in the big leagues is where all the previous stuff really pays off with the big exciting fight and all that feel-good emotions you would be used to by now on movies like this. The only segment in Real Steel that I have a gripe about is the middle when they start the transition from underdog to rising star. There simply isn't any significant robots fights in between. We don't really see Atom build up his reputation with any additional matches. This is a shame because the movie is really at its best showing these fights. You don't even get a decent fight montage. Still that's my only gripe for an otherwise very entertaining movie.

The Blu-Ray release will of course be in 1080p and have a DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio soundtrack. DVD will have Dolby Digital 2.0. Both the DVD and Blu-Ray are announced with a host of features with the Blu-Ray rounding out some nice extra features. Here are the list list of extras (* denotes Blu-Ray exclusive):

Audio Commentary With Director Shawn Levy*

Countdown to the Fight: The Charlie Kenton Story* - An ESPN-esque expose set right before Atom's big fight with the champ. It covers Charlie's boxing career with interviews with key characters in the film. It also talk about Atom from a sports commentator perspective. Pretty neat little featurette.

Sugar Ray Leonard: Cornerman's Champ* - Really cool featurette on Sugar Ray and his involvement with the movie. Hearing him talk in the interviews and hearing how the producers and actors take to his direction gives me a renewed level of respect for the boxing champ. Probably the most feel-good extra in the bunch.

Making of Metal Valley - Behind the scenes of the what it took to create the robot junk yard as well as the development of the biggest stunt in the movie in said junkyard.

Building the Bots - Interest, if short, making of documentary on the robots. Most of the 'bots were built as well as computer generated and there is a lot of talk about the virtues of using practical effects. Only problem is you don't see enough of the practical effects in action on this feature.

Deleted and extended scenes - One of each. There is a slightly extended scene with Charlie's first robot Ambush that has more stuff with the kids. I can see why they took most of the stuff out, but there is a second of footage here and there that would have done well to stay on the final cut. Next is not so much a deleted scene as a set of deleted or extended scenes that follow a particular story arc. Again I agree with the deletion, but I have to admit there was some nice scenes taken out (even if they did mess with the flow of the movie).

Bloopers and outtakes - Just as it sounds. A montage of mess-ups for you to enjoy. Not much in the way of belly busting funny, but if you like the behind the scenes camaraderie that you usually see in stuff like this it will satisfy.

Real Steel Second Screen: Ringside With Director Shawn Levy* - This is to access interactive content on your PC or iPad while simultaneously watching the movie. It's worthless if you do not have a device to sync to.

I am normally the type of person who shies away from "popcorn flicks" but this one is very well worth making the exception. It's fun and excitement for the whole family. If you ever liked underdog sports movies you gotta check this one out.

What a great movie. Sure, the storyline is predictable, but the entertainment value is huge. The thing about this movie is that I could see the depicted robot fights, the computer technology, basically everything about it, as coming about in the normal course of our society. A wholly believable story, probably one of the easiest SF movies to watch in terms of suspending disbelief in quite some time -- and it's worth mentioning that this actually *is* science fiction in the classic sense; a little technology, all of it reasonable, around which wraps a good story. It's not a fantasy, as are many so-called SF stories today.

So here we have really great robots, some awesome robot fighting, a not-overly annoying kid, and scenes that are (obviously intentionally) reminiscent of big-arena sports today, all combined with some feel-good stuff in the classic sense.

It kind of looks like a kid's movie before you watch it; then when you watch it, there are adult-ish elements; at the end, I wondered who they thought they were marketing to? Perhaps that's why this didn't do all that well at the box office: the kid probably turned off the hard core SF types, the violence probably turned off legions of mommies and daddies, and the people who did go and enjoy it didn't make the case to others that it really wasn't a kid's movie or a movie that is all that violent in the living-things-getting-hurt sense of the word.

Well, whatever the case there may be, I say, forget anything anyone says and just sit down with the desire to be entertained. I think you'll find that entertainment is delivered as desired, and in spades.

They clearly set it up (very well) for a sequel, but it's unlikely we'll see one, again because of the box office performance. Too bad. I really, really liked it. I think you probably will too.

I rented this from Amazon because I didn't expect much from it as movies go. I thought it was going to be a bunch od CGI with not much more. I was wrong. This movie is much more than just a movie about an underdog robot fighting the big man on the block. It was a mixture of a father son bonding experience blended with Rocky I. Three under dogs and they all do fine. Great acting and great story line combine for a really good movie. I guess I am going to have to buy the movie because I will definitly watch it again.

"We all wanted to make the kind of movie that we loved when we were young, the kind fo get-out-of-your-seat, cheer-for-the-underdog kind of movie that was going to be visually cool, but would be tonally different than you expect a robot movie to be -- at tone that may be closer to WALL-E or Iron Giant than it is to Transformers or Terminator.

Real Steel director Shawn Levy says this on the audio commentary (THANK YOU!) on both the Blu-ray and DVD of the movie, which had a big opening weekend in theaters and also on home video sales and rentals.

Indeed, Real Steel is very much like Iron Giant in spirit, and also like a very high tech Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. It's also an update of films like The Champ, in which a child helps a former achiever to reach again for the top, as a success and as a person.

As Levy also remarks in the commentary, the choice of likable star Hugh Jackman for a role that is unlikable for a good portion of the film is a major reason for how well it succeeds. Perhaps by design, Jackman never really comes across as a believable jerk, though he is very earnest and real in the role (despite his occasional tangles between his Australian accent with a "street tough" American dialect). He's ably supported by Dakota Goyo as his estranged young son (a performance that could make or break the film, but it this case "makes" it) and Evangeline Lilly, whose relatively small role radiates immense charm and appeal.

The robots and the spectacular effects are stars, of course, in this type of film, but Levy is careful to keep the real and the steel in balance. Visually, the filmmakers achieved what he calls a "retro modern" look in that takes place a few fictitious years from now. In order to make the robots more relatable to the actors, a combination of CG and full-size robots were created.

Levy also makes great use of the Michigan locations -- very stark and Blade Runner-ish without augmentation, thanks to the highly industrial look of gigantic assembly plants and scrapyards. In an early fight sequence, hundreds of extras are seen throughout a sprawling structure that was not a special comp effect, but a real place where large automobile parts where shipped in by train.

Real Steel isn't designed to be confused with The Artist. It's a popcorn cruncher that succeeds on its own terms.

I just watched this movie (got it from Netflix) and I thought it was really great. I wasn't expecting too much from it since I remembered it getting mixed reviews in the theater, but this is my kind of movie. I's saw that it earned it's five star rating.

Josh

Great movie! We really enjoy the action in the film. Shawn Levy did a wonderful job directing this film. Our kids enjoy it too.

If I was describe this movie to you I would be doing you a dis service. Let me just say that the storyline itself is a great concept. The fighting robots are superb and it's just a really great movie. I was laughing and clapping throughout most of the movie. It's for everybody and you feel really satisfied when the movie is over.

I love action films. This was really full of action. The fighting Robots were really impressive. It was enjoyable as people were not hitting each other. I liked the young man who plays the son. He tries hard to get his Dad to understand how much he loves and needs him. Who doesn't like Hugh Jackman? He plays the dad. He seems perfect for the part. I plan to take it to my sons new TV and watch it in Blu-ray. Be sure to cheer for ATOM.

It would have been so much better without that annoying kid.It could have been little bit more serious.You will know all the plot after five minutes which is found in almost all popcorn movies.

Now about the good parts.Fights are entertaining,effects are very good and I liked Hugh Jackman performence and would like too see him in a more serious films.

Bad grammar as allways :)

When I bought this movie, I thought it would be one the kids would like because of the robots fighting. I actually enjoyed the movie myself. It was entertaining for all of us. And basically, that is what I want from a movie. Entertain me.