Down for the count

Rock ’um sock ’um robots haven’t come a long way since the 1970s and this amalgamation between Rocky and Transformers packs just about as much punch as the archaic toy.

It’s been a while since Hollywood has offered anything fresh and exciting and I’m guessing it’s because the public still buys tickets to watch movies like this one.

The last decent plot twist I saw was in the Sixth Sense but there’s only so many times you can re-watch that movie before you want to throw your TV out of the window.

It almost seems like Hollywood’s plan is to make people so sick of the mindless drivel it churns out that we’d rather pick up a good book instead … the plan is working!

Real Steal is set sometime in the not-too-distant future in a world where human boxing has been replaced by robot boxing. These huge machines are controlled by their owners and fight for the amusement of the crowds and big cash prizes.

Charlie (Jackman) is a former boxer whose career was essentially finished when robots became the main attraction. However, rather the leave the sport he loves entirely, he opts to control one of these mechanical fighters and bet on the outcome.

The problem is, he’s not very good at it and often loses more money than he earns. In fact, the first scene in the movie sees him pit his robot against a much bigger opponent and when he loses, he skips town before paying his debt.

His luck goes from bad to worse after the mother of his estranged son dies and he is given custody of 11-year-old Max (Goyo). Since Charlie is in no way paternal, he desperately searches for a way to shirk his responsibility.

Fortunately his dead ex-girlfriend’s sister (Max’s aunt) offers Charlie enough money to buy a new robot if he takes care of his son for the summer while she’s away on holiday.

He accepts the offer and uses the money to buy a gleaming new robot and, with the help of his old flame and robot mechanic Bailey (Lilly), he prepares the robot for its first fight.

However, because he’s so excited at the prospect of turning his luck around Charlie doesn’t take the time to properly train the robot and after a disastrous fight, the robot is destroyed and Charlie is left with nothing … except his son, of course.

Predictably Max manages to strip away Charlie’s gruff exterior and the two bond over creating a new robot, salvaged from a scrap yard.

The new robot, Atom, turns out to be a natural in the ring and Charlie sees the opportunity to make some money and hit the big time. With a little more help from Bailey and Max, Charlie takes the time to really teach Atom about boxing and soon, he’s given a shot at the world championship.

This film is aimed at kids but there are supposedly grown-up themes to keep parents interested … although, I never was.

Surprisingly, Goyo is the real star of this film and Jackman is simply there to add some star power. The young lad manages to hold his own on screen but the predictable outcome distracts from his talent.

Jackman delivers what you would expect from a PG13-rated character in a boxing movie, nothing special. However, he manages to get the job done and, to be honest anyone in that role would face the same impossible challenge of making a cliché story fun.

Lilly was also a little disappointing in her big-screen debut and I thought she could have picked a better script. She was fantastic in LOST and obviously has a knack for picking TV scripts but I guess that skill didn’t carry over to films.

My final gripe is that at over two hours long, this film runs well over the time it deserves and requires. The same results could have been achieved had the movie been an hour shorter … and it probably would’ve resulted in a tighter script too.

Real Steel is down for the 10 count and I just heard the final bell!

Showing in Cineco, Seef II and Saar Cineplex