Action

Science Fiction

Drama

Real Steel

DreamWorks Pictures

Reliance Entertainment

21 Laps Entertainment

Montford / Murphy Productions

United States of America

India

English

Hugh Jackman

Dakota Goyo

Evangeline Lilly

Kevin Durand

Anthony Mackie

Hope Davis

James Rebhorn

Karl Yune

Sophie Levy

Tess Levy

Olga Fonda

John Gatins

Gregory Sims

Torey Adkins

Phil LaMarr

John Hawkinson

David Alan Basche

Julian Gant

Ken Alter

Leilani Barrett

D.B. Dickerson

Peter Carey

Dan Lemieux

Richard Goteri

Tim Holmes

Ricky Wayne

Taris Tyler

Kevin Dorman

John Manfredi

Mike Ancrile

Leah Barkoff

Joshua Ray Bell

Clark Birchmeier

Ben Hernandez Bray

Wayne E. Brown

Justin Calkins

Ron Causey

Jahnel Curfman

Johnny Flynn

Logan Fry

Megan Grant

J.J. Green

Shane Hagedorn

Kef Lee

Brad Leo Lyon

Mary Magyari

Megan Mockensturm

Kirstie Munoz

Anton Narinskiy

Chris Newman

Wendy Paquette

Alan D. Purwin

Miguel Sandoval

Dwight Sora

Jojuan Westmoreland

Amanda Bright

Gary T. Jones

Rima Fakih

Susan Montford

Dan Gilroy

Danny Elfman

Richard Hicks

Steve Starkey

Shawn Levy

Jeremy Leven

Jack Rapke

David Rubin

Dean Zimmerman

Steven Spielberg

Don Murphy

Tom Meyer

Josh McLaglen

Mary McLaglen

Robert Zemeckis

Kevin McTurk

Michael Anthony Jackson

Gary Archer

Marlene Stewart

Ann Masterson

Garrett Warren

Mauro Fiore

Erik Baker

Damion Poitier

Zachary Woodlee

Eminem

Rick Benattar

Ron Ames

Eric Hedayat

Nina Paskowitz

Bill Abbott

Jennifer Hawks

Craig Henighan

Warren Hendriks

Anthony Seyler

Victor J. Zolfo

Terry Wilson

Wayne Lemmer

Seth Reed

Steve Cantamessa

Paul Massey

Diane Durant

Melissa Moseley

Richard Matheson

Danny Gordon Taylor

Erik Nash

Swen Gillberg

John Rosengrant

Daren Dochterman

Jim Warren

Jack McQuisten

Bobby Mara

Rick Radomski

John Villarino

Scott Schutzki

Pamela S. Westmore

Rishi Moudgil

Jeremy Thompson

Mike Mahern

Tom Sparkman

Kimberly Jones

Jourdan Henderson

Chris Frankovich

Joe Dunckley

Justin N. Lang

Lauren Kress

Satcha Congdon

John Millard

Robert Woodruff

Eleyna M. Brandt

David Stasiak

Jennifer Bash

Anthony Darin

Tim Croshaw

Tex Kadonaga

Mark Sejnowski

Carl F. Shuffett

Elizabeth Cortez

Robert M. Gualdoni

Theodore Sharps

Derek Dubyak

Stephanie Arble

Clifton Chippewa

Wilson Wilkes

Meshelle Melone

Andrea Carter

David Brayman

Bobby Rhodes

Jeannette Moriarty

Natalie Driscoll

Tim Flattery

Leslie A. Tokunaga

David Moreau

Anne Porter

No splitting this Atom, it has got a rock solid heart.

Real Steel is directed by Shawn Levy and collectively adapted to the screen by John Gatins, Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven from a Richard Matheson short story called Steel. It stars Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis and James Rebhorn. Music is scored by Danny Elfman and cinematography by Mauro Fiore.

Set in the near future, robot boxing is a big crowd pulling sport. After a struggling robot operator is introduced to an 11-year-old son he has never known, they stumble upon a discarded robot at a junk yard....

We can all moan about the mimicry of an idea and the clichés that dominate Real Steel, but you really got to hand it to the makers for what they have achieved. They have crafted a family film that's very much perfect in this day and age. The story is one that any adult Sylvester Stallone fan can acknowledge and appreciate, the human heartbeat pleasingly steady, while the premise of big colourful robots beating the crap out of each other delights youngsters and us adults who are still young at heart. Film pretty much does what any other film of this type does, lays on the syrup in the last quarter where second chances and family strife come thundering through the plotting. Undeniably it's hugely derivative, events are joystick operated to get an emotional response from a family audience, while product placement reins and the script often sags under the weight of unoriginality. But it does uplift the spirit and getting to the end is easy since it's so much berserker fun. Yes it's the robot Atom, the people's champion, yes it's David vS Goliath and yes! It's Balboa vS Creed. Nothing wrong with that really.

The cast don't really have to offer up much beyond being adequate within the context of the material, though a muscular Jackman finds good paternal chemistry with young Goyo. In fact Goyo is pleasingly not annoying, always a bonus is that. Inevitably the robots are the stars, they're a triumph of design and visual effects and a sight for sore eyes, while Levy has a good handle on staging the fight sequences - even when cribbing from Balboa. The near future look is terrific as well, with Fiore's colour photography very appealing. Coining in over $290 million at the worldwide box office (over £180 million in profit), Real Steel found the family audience it was looking for, proving once again that there is a market for simple and effective popcorn carnage. It's not high art or intelligently scripted, but was anyone seriously thinking that was going to be the case here? If you want brains with this premise then seek out Twilight Zone episode "Steel", starring the excellent Lee Marvin, otherwise just sit back and enjoy the ride and let the botty bots and human interest raise the pulse and gladden the heart respectively. 7/10

Home format release is a sparkling print, extras are annoyingly short but the blooper reel is fun, we get a stunt deconstruction, and we learn about the influence a certain Mr. Spielberg had on the production.

Gimly

I wonder if this was originally written to be a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots movie, but when they couldn't get the rights they just decided to make it anyway. In either case, it's not very good. Amazing that you could take a movie about anthropomorphic **robots** and manage to still make it into a cliche sports film. 

_Final rating:★½: - Boring/disappointing. Avoid where possible._

Official Theatrical Trailer

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