Ex-boxer Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is convinced to train a sparring robot, nicknamed Atom, for the big time by the 11-year-old son, Max (Dakota Goyo), he never even knew he had, the trio becoming something of a bizarre not-so-far-into-the-future family in the process.

CRITIQUE

Here’s what I wrote about this one back in October of last year:

“What, in all reality, am I supposed to say about Shawn Levy’s (Date Night, Night at the Museum) family friendly coming of age morality tale Real Steel? This is, after all, a movie about robot fighting. It’s a live action version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots, nothing more (and certainly nothing less), and any pretense at trying to describe the movie as some sort of father-son sports driven melodrama or an adolescent coming of age piece is stretching things far beyond their breaking point.

I guess what I can say is that the movie, for all its faults, for all its drippy sentimentality, for everything that it doesn’t do very well, even at a far too long 126 minutes this dopey sci-fi piece of pop entertainment isn’t entirely a waste. Jackman is as likeable as ever, newcomer Goyo is surprisingly good and, somehow, someway, Levy manages to make the film’s central robotic figure, Atom, a far more emotionally transfixing presence than he arguably has any right to be. This movie knows what it is, knows what story beats it has to hit, knows which ones (more or less) to avoid and, at least in regards to younger viewers (think under the age of 12), becomes something easy to cheer along with. By and large it isn’t a chore to sit through, and considering my expectations going in, as well as the rather dreary nature of the subject matter, this is a surprise almost worth crowing about.

None of which means I’m giving Real Steel a recommendation. Costars Davis, Evangeline Lilly (playing Charlie’s former flame and the daughter of his deceased boxing trainer) and Anthony Mackie (as a bizarrely scrupulous underground boxing promoter who likes Charlie but isn’t about to bet on him) are flat-out wasted in nondescript supporting roles, the movie itself is far too long and the fact screenwriter John Gatins (Coach Carter) and story writers Dan Gilroy (The Fall) and Jeremy Leven (My Sister’s Keeper) follow the Rocky template (think parts one, four and five combined into a single narrative) is borderline inexcusable. The whole thing is both entirely too routine as well as instantly forgettable, a tandem not exactly high on my list of cinematic virtues to extol.

Not that any of this should come as a surprise as one could tell from the film’s melodramatic trailers all of the above was likely to be the case. Stellar visual effects and smoothly charismatic lead performance from Jackman aside, there is little about Levy’s latest to make it worthwhile. Yes the youngsters will like it, and sure adults aren’t going to want to shoot themselves in the head if they’re forced to sit through it, but neither of those things makes the movie good. Real Steel is as mechanical as its central pugilistic figures are, the whole thing a soggy, overly familiar familial drama I could honestly care less about.”

Real Steel does play far better at home than it did in the theatre, but at the same time at just over two-hours in length there is no reason at all for this soggy excuse of a cliché-ridden sports melodrama to go on far as long as it does. Still, as family fodder goes it is better than it has any right to be, and I imagine there are going to be a heck of a lot of kids who are going to adore this movie quite a lot. Not a recommendation, mind you, but certainly not a statement that should keep anyone pondering giving it a look to do so.

THE VIDEO

Real Steel is presented on a dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video with a 2.35:1/1080p transfer.

THE AUDIO

Real Steel comes to Blu-ray in English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, French DTS-HD HR 7.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 and includes optional English SDH, Spanish and French subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Extras here include:

·         Real Steel Second Screen: Ringside with Director Shawn Levy – Wasn’t active when I sat down to watch the film again, and in all seriousness I haven’t felt the need to explore it now when I’m fairly positive it is. Sorry.

·         Countdown to the Fight -- The Charlie Kenton Story (13:51) – Engaging little ‘mockumentary’ featuring characters from the film talking about Charlie before and his ascension back to relevance preceding Atom’s title fight.

·         Making of Metal Valley (14:14) – Great featurette on the film’s most complex set, the gigantic junkyard Charlie and Max discover the rusting Atom.

·         Building the Bots (5:38) – Way too short featurette on the film’s best attribute, it’s Oscar-nominated visual effects.

·         Sugar Ray Leonard: Cornerman's Champ (6:19) – Sugar Ray on what it took to make Hugh Jackman a convincing ex-boxer.

·         Deleted & Extended Scenes (17:49) – Just imagine if these were still in the film, as an overlong motion picture would suddenly run nearly 2 ½ hours and probably bore all of those to tears all of those who now claim to love it. Let’s just say director Shawn Levy made the right decision in cutting these extended bits and one entire subplot out.

·         Bloopers (2:36) – Ugh. Blooper real. Wake me when this two-plus minutes are over.

The included DVD contains an Audio Commentary with Shawn Levy, a commentary track I’m assuming is the exact same one available with the Blu-ray Second Screen special feature.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Great Blu-ray, silly movie; make of those two statements what you will.