MOVIE REVIEW: REAL STEEL (12A)

"ONE OF THE COOLEST FILMS OUT IN 2011"

Real Steel is a science fiction film Directed by Shawn Levy (same guy that brought us Date Night, 2010). Set in 2020, where robot boxing is a top sport, a father and son are reunited around the same time they discover a robot who the son believes can go on to be a champion. They both see how far to the top the robot can take them. Its Starring Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Kevin Durand, Evangeline Lily, Hope Davis, Anthony Mackie, Olga Fonda, James Rebhorn & Karl Yune.

#Fact: Much of the Robot boxing fight were motion captured using professional boxers, supervised by Sugar Ray Leonard.
#Fact: Each of the robots were built in real life and CGI. For certain shots with animatronics, they were controlled by more than 20 puppeteers.


THE REVIEW:

When i saw the trailer for this movie, i was pretty much as excited as anyone. From what i saw it looked fresh & energetic. A film about robot boxing with today's technology has just got to be something worth watching.


After watching this film, i was impressed on how well produced & directed this film was. From the storyline, characters & to the robot themselves, everything had as much depth as needed. There was parts of the film that spoke without nobody saying any words.Its very engaging, very emotional & very entertaining. The heart-melting emotions might have the ladies reaching for tissues. Everything just looked clean cut, the production had the "made to perfection" feel to it. Nothing felt over the top & even the bad characters had likeable factors which kept the movie on that enjoyable level throughout.  
Instead of calling it one of the coolest film of 2011 I would have loved to say it was the best but i couldn't stretch that far because some parts of the storyline I knew what was going to happen before it did. The Hollywood factor got the better of this film (cheesy crowd pleaser). I actually would have loved for an iRobot (will smith film) moment,where one the machines malfunctions & maybe causes a fatality or one starts thinking for itself without any supervision.


The CGI robots looked amazingly real, the action fights scenes was awesome to watch. The move combos and tactical play was very well sequenced. The technology they had in 2020 had me hoping we have something like that when the world get to that time in life. Being able to sync a persons movement to a robot and be able to make it as real as they did deserved them some awards. (CGI nearly as good as Rise of the Planet of the Apes)


Charlie Kenton (Jackman) does what he does best and delivers a knock-out performance (pardon the pun) but his son Max (Goyo) might just have stolen his shine because his performance was some of my favourite parts of the movie. I haven't seen a father & son relationship work so well on screen in such a long time. The whole cast was picked very well.

OVERALL:  ANOTHER MUST WATCH IN 2011.

STAR RATINGS OUT OF 5:  4.5

ONE FAVOURITE MOMENT IN THE FILM:

The speech the son (max) makes after a win. He uses that opportunity to challenge the champion.

(if you loved another moment in the film, please feel free to share it with us in the comments)

TRAILER: