If you watch TV at all, by now you must have seen at least a few trailers for Real Steel. If you're anything like me, your first thought -- and probably your second thought, too -- was to wonder why they hadn't simply called it "Rock 'Em-Sock 'Em Robots." Having now seen the movie, I can say that, while that would have been a cool title, it really would have been misleading.
You see, while to a large extent the movie is about robots boxing -- and, believe me, the robots are awesome -- the robots also serve as the medium for an overarching story about the redemption of a man via his evolution from father to dad. The focus of the movie really rests on the relationship between Charlie (Hugh Jackman), a down-on-his-luck guy whose desire to be a dad is so low it seems to have never even occurred to him to consider it, and his son Max (Dakota Goyo), a smart, clever, and faux-tough kid who's never had a dad in his life and suddenly finds himself desperately needing one.
You'll see reviews, I'm sure, that will praise the young Goyo's performance as Max -- and he certainly does do a great job in the film. But for my part I was more impressed with Jackman's performance. Despite the very predictable arc of his character through the film, Jackman manages to really sell it. I'm sure some of it comes -- as he said in the roundtable interview at at the junket for the movie I attended a few weeks ago -- from the fact that he has two kids whom he clearly loves dearly, but it was still a revelation to me. It's an aspect of Jackman's talent he's never had the chance to exercise on screen, and his ability to take a character that could easily have been played as a pure cliché and make him mostly believable should not be underestimated.
I'll have more on Real Steel tomorrow, and a full review (and "10 Things Parents Should Know" list) on Friday, but for now please enjoy this trailer, which focuses on the relationship between Charlie and Max:
