2/1: Real Steel

I saw "Real Steel" on Day 9 of my 34 Days of Oscar. This movie has been nominated this year for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

The award for Best Visual Effects is one of the technically oldest categories at the Academy Awards. At the very first awards in 1928, the movie "Wings" won the award for Best Engineering Effects, although was considered a "Special Award" and not listed as one of the main awards handed out. It took 10 more years until this award was handed out again, but starting in 1939, the category "Best Special Effects" became a recognized category. In 1964 the name was changed to "Best Special Visual Effects" and finally it was changed one final time, in 1977, to Best Visual Effects.

"Real Steel" is somewhat like the "Rocky" version of Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots. It had a lot more heart that I thought I fighting robots movie would have. The story follows Charlie (Hugh Jackman) as he discovers he has a son while trying to squeeze out a living fighting robot boxers. Charlie's son Max (Dakota Goyo) comes along on these fighting trips and discovers a discarded fighting robot of his own. There are many many comparisons this movie has to "Rocky", but where they both had heart, only "Rocky" had soul. It was next to impossible to like Jackman's character, and almost as equally hard to like his son. This was more the fault of the script than the performances though.

The Academy Award nominated visual effects were the best part of the movie. They were pretty seamlessly integrated into the story and with some very minor exceptions, you believed that the action was real. There is a scene halfway through the movie where Charlie shadow boxes with the robot and from a VFX standpoint, it was a perfect scene. The robot's movements perfectly echoed whatever Jackman's character was doing onscreen. It was a quieter moment, but it was one that worked because of the VFX.

I give "Real Steel" a 2.5 out of 5 stars. The Visual Effects were impressive and the look of the film was pitch perfect. I was just so annoyed at the actions of the 2 main leads (man and boy) that it was difficult to really root for the main characters at all. If they had tried just a little harder to make Jackman's character likable, the movie would have been a lot better. I heard that they were thinking of making "Real Steel 2" in a year or so. If they do, I hope they take a long hard look at the script and figure out how to give the humans as much humanity as they gave the robots in this one.