Robot boxing for the whole family in Real Steel

In the near future, there will be robots, and they will fight for our entertainment and edification. Real Steel is set in the year 2020, when humanity has grown tired of muscled men in the ring. With the advent of robotics, the sweet science has been transferred to mechas, or machine-powered giants for the uninitiated. While controlled by humans via remote, the robot boxers aren’t really the monsters we’ve come to expect from Anime or videogames. They’re still rather big though, around eight to 10 feet high. So, with people already bored with human athletes, the hottest thing is machine versus machine in a visceral spectacle and the community that has grown around its fandom. The movie opens with Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) as a washed-up boxer who’s now surviving by piecing together low-end fighter bots and traveling from one underground boxing venue to the next. Put to literal pasture, Charlie is forced to hustle as a small-time fight promoter and earn just enough money to survive. It’s here that Jackman reprises the anti-hero but emotionally vulnerable role he plays so well.

At a country fair, Charlie’s just put up his robot Ambush against a huge bull and, as the fight proceeds, the whole thing ends in catastrophe. He not only loses a $50, 0000 bet (to the same boxer who knocked him out in his last human vs. human fight) but also manages to get Ambush totally trashed by the steer. Charlie manages to give them the slip but when he gets back to the city, he finds that he’s been called to court. He needs to sign over paternity of his son by an ex-girlfriend, who just passed away, to the boy’s aunt. But in the meantime, his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) ends up staying with him for a spell. The World Robot League (WRB) is the place of pomp and spectacle where all the top designers and machines compete. It’s like WWE, UFC, and every big boxing arena extravaganza rolled into one. When Charlie acquires an old WRB fighter who’s seen better days, Max forces his father into letting him tag along. And as the fights progress, father and son get to know each other and reluctantly team up to rebuild and train a scrap-heap robot named Atom. “The main characters––a father, his son and a machine––are each abandoned beings," explains director Shawn Levy in the production notes. “All three of them have been cast aside and forgotten. The substance of the story is about how this trinity has a chance of returning to grace." Based on a sci-fi short story by Richard Matheson, Real Steel is a mix of familiar themes like the Comeback Kid meets the Underdog storyline, with a father-son relationship as its centerpiece. The whole robo boxing thing is a way out for Disney and Dreamworks to make another hit off the current pugilism high, while letting these big studios off the hook sans the blood and broken noses. All the amazing Ali and Pacquiao moves notwithstanding, the furious melee is still real combat. The “Oh, they’re just metal, they can’t really feel anything anyway" line is a clever exit strategy. It’s very entertaining, too. At more than an hour, none of the kids at the theater got bored, and neither did I. Dakota Goyo is one of the child stars to look out for as he grows up during the movie’s cool moments and rises up from being angry at the world to being ecstatic and then straight up cocky before reality hits him like an overhand right. At the end of one fight, he witnesses Charlie getting a comeuppance from some shady characters, but then ends up leading his dad to Hollywood-style redemption. Yes, this is a Disney movie, but it only becomes apparent about midway through when Max and the robot do a Justin Bieber-worthy dance number. No, I’m not kidding. As far as eye candy goes Evangeline Lilly (from Lost) as Bailey, the daughter of Charlie’s former trainer from back when he was a young fighter, is definite hotness in top athletic form. Max and Charlie eventually turn their robo-fighter Atom into a top contender, rising up to challenge the WRB champ himself. As the stakes get higher Charlie acquires one last shot at a comeback, unveiling the real gem of this science fiction movie. Atom’s unique built-in program allows him to mimic certain moves programmed into his sensors, much like using an X-Box Kinect but with shattering results. It’s funny how the outdated, even vintage, program uses the shadow boxing tech to enable the father and son team to punch their way to a steel-clashing climax. More importantly, it allows the old boxing skills of Charlie Kenton to shine again and also lets Max see his father as he must have been in his glory days of fighting. With Steven Spielberg in the role of executive producer, Real Steel will send all the 10- to 12-year old boys who see it on another robot buying spree. Or maybe they’ll ask for gloves and a punching bag, which is also good. At the very least, they’ll be playing less video games. – YA, GMA News Real Steel opens October 12 in all major Metro Manila theaters. All photos courtesy of Columbia Pictures