Read Time: 4 minutes

Year of release: 2011
Run time: 2 hr. 7 mins. | Rated: PG-13 | Genre: Action / Drama / Sci-Fi / Underdog | Language: English

Inspired by Richard Matheson’s 1956 short story entitled “Steel”, which Matheson also adapted into a Twilight Zone episode in 1963. Directed by Shawn Levy, a producer and director known for Stranger Things (2016), Night at the Museum franchise, and a number of films involving Ryan Reynolds.

Underdog movies have always been an interesting genre for me, specially if the film is so captivating that you’d just feel genuinely happy for the character. The crossover of 90s life, sci-fi, and boxing was fluid. It’s like bot fighting from Big Hero 6 but on a much larger scale. Not just individuals doing underground fights, but corporations battling each other for money and fame.

Similarity to games

The thing that got my attention with Real Steel, aside from being an underdog genre, it’s the likeness to a versus video game. You pick an unknown bot, raise its stats, and slowly climb your way up the ranks. The variety of opponents/bots was also fun to see and discover what they could do, it’s like when they were introducing Jaegers in Pacific Rim, each Jaeger was unique in its own way with their own specialty. And because of its likeness to a game, 2 years after the film’s successful release, comes “Real Steel World Robot Boxing (RWB)”. A mobile game released by Reliance Games in 2013.

Characters

• The thing that makes Hugh Jackman so lovable is that his acting is very authentic. I mean, I don’t know the guy personally, but anyone would probably say the same thing. He was great in Les Misérables (2012), Pan (2015), the best in recent years in my opinion was his portrayal of P.T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman (2017). Even his voice acting for Rise of the Guardians as Bunny was great. The way he smiles during the final fight encapsulates all his struggles as a once No.2 contender in the world of boxing, and you could see how happy he was to do what he loved to do, even from ringside.
• Dakota Goyo, who portrays as the son of Jackman’s, was fantastic. He could draw the audience in. His face was so innocent that you could feel how happy or how sad he was during scenes. He clutches your emotions and takes you on the ride with him. His chemistry with Jackman was perfect.

CGI and Animatronics

Each of the robots in Real Steel were built both in real life and the use of CGI, there were certain shots with animatronics and were controlled by almost twenty puppeteers. The movements of the robots were not made by a computer, they were motion-captured using professional boxers guided by Sugar Ray Leonard himself. Even Jackman was trained by Sugar. So you could say that Atom was Sugar Ray Leonard, and that was cool as hell.

Nods to legends

Real Steel had a lot of nods and homages made throughout the film, most of which came from wrestling, with catchphrases from The Rock, or from the entrance of Hulk Hogan. Another one and probably the most nostalgic nod in the film was during the final battle, when Noisy Boy was losing and Tak Mashido grabbed the reins from the technician. He switched from, essentially, auto-fight to manual. The way he held those two joysticks and was moving them forward and back alternately. That was an homage and how we used to play the toy, Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

Conclusion

Real Steel was an all around great cinematic experience. The way the film draws everyone in and makes you cheer for Atom was exceptional. And I also love how they ended the film. His nickname “The People’s Champion” (An homage to The Rock’s nickname, The People’s Champ) was beautifully displayed during that end scene. The mesh of sci-fi and 90s life worked wonders, and the fact that they didn’t do it so far into the future helped everyone to connect further with the film. I really recommend this film, great for family nights and for everyone of all ages.

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