Real Steel

No one should enter this movie with high expectations. It's a movie about Wolverine fighting robots. But just wait until the kid comes on screen. This kid makes the movie and sets the emotional tone of innocence, perseverance, hope, and love. Hugh Jackman plays Charlie Kenton, a deadbeat dad who abandoned his family when the kid was born. He was a boxer but was discarded when robot boxing put him out of a job. Now he uses scrap heaps to enter illegal or small time boxing matches to earn beer money. After losing another robot in a bull fight at a local fair, Jackman is confronted by lawyers telling him his ex-girlfriend died and he needs to attend a custody hearing.
By a twist of fate and a money making opportunity, Kenton gets the kid, Max Kenton (Dakota Goyo) for one summer before he has to give him up to his aunt and uncle. Max finds a sparring robot at the junkyard and decides to train it to fight. After losing his last robot, Charie allows his son to enter his hopeless sparring robot into some small competitions. This robot was not built to actually fight, just train the other robots. However the heart and technical skill of Max and the tactics of the former boxer help get this underdog robot into the professional ring.
While the movie looked to be just average, most people will be surprised how emotional you get into the movie. Even with robots fighting, by the end you are reminded of how you watched the first Rocky and could not get off the edge of your seat during the final fight.
While the robot is not fancy or able to convince you to fall in love with it, the human characters get you on their robots side. Hugh Jackmans flaws as a human make him relatable and gives you hope he will find redemption through the robots victories and his child's admiration. Dakota's character gets you emotionally involved through his hope and faith that his dad will love him and his robot will win.
This was a fantastic movie and is definitely one to watch! I would not say it's a must see on the big screen, but an afternoon matinee would be a great choice.


Movie poster from: http://www.daemonsmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/real-steel-movie-poster-01.jpg