Real Steel

An endearing, old-fashioned ‘underdog’ film in an energetic new form

The star of Real Steel is a robot called Atom. He has blue eyes, wide shoulders and a lovely contemplative grin. Okay, so he comes from an older generation. It doesn’t matter. He just proves something that young women have known for a long time—older guys are the best.

Atom was manufactured before 2014 and is picked up by a kid from a robot junkyard. The kid, 11-year-old Max (Dakota Goyo), is a video game junkie in love with robots. Set in the future, the film talks about a time when robots are gladiators. The world champion is a massive piece of steel called Zeus, programmed by the latest software to knock out all opposition in the first round. 

But Max first has to deal with his dad, a former boxing champ who is now a low-life hustler making small change dealing with giant fighting robots that he lugs around in his truck. Charlie (Hugh Jackman) is the kind of man who will sell his own mother. Here, he sells his own son, handing over custody of the kid to the boy’s aunt for a hundred grand. This endearing father-son relationship is enhanced when Charlie, recalling his halcyon days, teaches Atom the moves of a professional boxer and turns him into a champion.

Real Steel is the old ‘underdog’ movie refurbished in an energetic  new form. What is nice is that even though there is plenty of high-tech action with special effects, the gizmos are very elegantly designed. The robots are simply beautiful and the way technology is combined with slices of emotional drama is proportionately perfect. A human quality inhabits this ‘real’ steel. When Charlie shadow boxes for Atom in the final fight, you can’t really tell who the cheering is for—the robot or the human. An entertaining film that grips you all the way.

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Ajit Duara