Looking at Real Steel’s trailer is kind of like watching snip-its of the old show Battle Bots, if the robots were a 100 feet high and could box.  You could say it’s an expensive movie about Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

Richard Matheson, writer of the book I Am Legend had inspired the movie with his book named Steel.  The most recent trailer summarizes a story of a down on his luck, ex-boxer and father who tries to do right by his son.  The goal is to find a robot to fight in the ring.  The father and son find a small beat up one in a junkyard late at night. Of course, the robot can understand the kid and they both form a bond.

If I wanted to see a movie about a kid befriend a giant robot , I would watch Iron Giant.  It basically has the same story, a single minimum wage mother who tries to make ends meet for her son.  Her son finds a giant robot and makes friends with it.  So far, there is not a lot going for the movie except giant fighting robots.

There are a lot of reasons why this movie puts me off.  One: I already mentioned, is that it is the same as Iron Giant but it does not seem as heart- wrenching nor as sophisticated.  Two: the robots are remote controlled. So high stakes will be hard to create.  The only high stake in this movie is the father needing money to raise his son.

So why would an audience care about a 100-foot-tall robot who can understand a kid, without making it like Iron Giant, or even Bicentennial Man?   Of course, they will really have to develop the robot’s character in order for that to happen.  But looking at the first trailer, it just seems to only focus on robots fighting.  The only way for this movie to actually make us care, is to develop the characters in a way that we sympathize with them.

Another movie this is going to be like is Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe but with robots.  Cinderella Man is about a down on his luck boxer/father and puts himself back in the ring for his family.  Essentially, what Real Steel is going for.

I know I might be unfair to this movie.  I did not really give it a chance.  It fustrating when a $85 million budget is used to create this movie.  I mean it’s not the pinnacle of originality here.  Give that $80 million to a good cause or a better movie, because I do not see this movie making a profit.  Even if it does make a profit, the movie has been done long before this comes out in October.

One poitive thing about the production is that they have boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson as an adviser for the fight scenes.  Sugar Ray is an amazing boxer, even proclaimed as the best boxer whom ever fought.  I have no doubt that he will do a good job helping the crew choreograph bold fight scenes.

An interesting fact about the production is that Danny Elfman composes the score.  With him behind the music, I think the score will be great for the film and be one of the better parts of the movie.  Danny Elfman, has scored films like: Good Will Hunting, Mars Attacks!, and Spider-Man.

Hugh Jackman takes the star role of the father in the film. His supporting cast is made up of many actors from the show Lost, such as Evangeline Lilly and Kevin Durand.  These are all pretty seasoned actors but I am more excited to see eleven-year-old Dakota Goyo act.  Goyo has such a natural talent for acting that it will be fun to see what he does in this movie as Hugh Jackman’s son.

Overall, this movie is not the most original film out there.  We will have to wait and see if the movie will turn out well.  It’s really up in the air.  With Sugar Ray behind the scenes putting some flare into the fighting, with Danny Elfman creating the score, and with Goyo acting I think it will be fun to watch but it does not really make me feel like I’m going spend my $10 on it when I could spend it on other better and more original movie.

I mean Transformers 3 just came out, how many fighting robot movies is Hollywood going to make?

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About the author

Peter Yannantuono