Review: Real Steel

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly
Director: Shawn Levy
Category: IIA

It's set in 2020 and features fighting robots rendered on screen with undoubtedly the latest, state-of-the-art digital technology. So far, so futuristic - but unfortunately that's where Real Steel's dalliance with the cutting edge ends, as Shawn Levy's bombastic Transformers remix of the Rocky IV premise is mired in an abject predictability and a dated parochialism that would be seen as out of place in the 1980s, not to say the 21st century.

To properly understand the film's Grand Americana subtext, look no further than the film's opening credit sequence, backed by a country-and-western song. Viewers are treated to scenes that sustain the country's national myth, as a truck is seen careering through lush American prairie, its destination being the bright lights of a circus in a field. It's a wistful celebration of the past through the much-trodden story of washed-up ex-boxer Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) growing closer to and regaining respect from his son Max (Dakota Goyo, below left with Jackman), who is forced to reunite with his prodigal father after his mother dies.

In a world where the sport of real men pummelling each other into oblivion has long been replaced by robots doing the same thing, Charlie and Max embark on a journey of self-discovery and reconciliation through training an antiquated android for ever-bigger bouts, with the grand finale being a fight between their machine and a menacing automaton (below centre) backed by Russian money and Japanese technology.

It's not difficult to see the subtext of this self-styled David-against-Goliath battle, which the insufferable 11-year-old Max proclaims as the opportunity for 'the littlest guy' in the room to challenge the financial forces and physical prowess trying to grind down American grit. Without waving the Stars and Stripes, Atom is seen as an echo of Rocky Balboa as he, at the height of the cold war, went into the ring to fight his Russian nemesis, Ivan Drago.

But Sly Stallone's Rocky and Dolph Lundgren's Drago at least drew empathy with the concussions and confusion they experienced as flesh-and-blood fighters. In contrast, Real Steel is merely that: the film is devoid of the humanity that makes boxing films riveting viewing.