Real Steel: A Review

I'll start off with a caveat: Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, isn't exactly a sports movie. It's actually a film about robot boxing which, in the year 2027, has replaced human boxing as the preferred form of combat-for-sport because of people's desire to see increasing levels of brutality, carnage and pain that only robots can provide.  Amid this not-so-subtle critique of  Mixed Martial Arts is a film about relationships, fatherhood and most of all, remote-controlled fighting robots.  And since boxing is (sort of) a sport and, other than Moneyball, no one has made a widely-released sports movie in a while, Real Steel will have to count as a sports movie for the purposes of this blog post. 

Next, let me state the obvious.  Real Steel is a terrible movie according to the way films are traditionally judge by "legitimate critics."  As evidenced by it's mediocre 58% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is predictable, contrived and formulaic.  From the opening credits, you know exactly what's going to happen - against all odds, Jackman and his son, with whom he has been reunited due to the untimely death of the boy's mother, are going to build a fighting robot on a shoestring budget that can hang with - and ultimately defeat - bigger, stronger, faster and more expensive robotic competition.  That last sentence doesn't even merit a "Spoiler Alert!" tag because it's so painfully obvious.  If you can't guess the plot going into the movie, you've probably never seen an underdog-style sports movie before, and I pity you for that.

But fortunately for Real Steel, I don't judge my sports movies based on traditional movie ranking criteria.  In fact, when I see a sports movie, I want it to be predictable.  I want the underdog to slowly improve throughout the course of the movie, preferably through the lens of a well-timed and appropriately soundtracked montage, and in the end get a shot at the title.  Anything more "clever" would ruin a perfectly good, proven formula of sports movie success.  If it's been good enough for classics such as Major League, Rudy and The Mighty Ducks, you better believe it's good enough for Real Steel.  So not only did I avoid complaining about the corny dialog and unoriginal plot - I applauded it.  With Real Steel, I got exactly what I asked for.

Yes, I enjoyed Real Steel.  Don't judge me.

With all that being said, a new sports movie needs something to differentiate it from others that have come before it.  Warrior, for example, tried to take the classic boxing movie formula, cross out the word "boxing" and replace it with "MMA," and carve out a new niche for itself.  For me, this wasn't enough to make me want to see the film - I need more of a "hook" to get me to spend my $10.  Real Steel, on the other hand, added a futuristic element and some top-notch special effects to the sports movie recipe, and the resulting dish was solid.  Think Transformers meets Rocky and you have a decent feel for what Real Steel was all about.  Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? So don't feel bad if you, like me, have the urge to check out the movie in theaters.  Just make sure you're not expecting anything more than some cool visuals, some unintentionally-comical writing and a moviegoer-tested, studio-approved plot and you'll have a great time.