FILM REVIEW: Real Steel

5 out of 10

Hugh in the corner

I know I'm probably a little generous with the ratings I dish out. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, I'm a man of peace. Secondly, I know how hard it is to make films even in short format, and can't imagine the challenges behind feature length productions... so getting shit on the screen alone earns an automatic 2.5 for me. And third... I did have a third... think it was thematically same as the man of peace bit so I'll just reiterate that... I'm a man of peace.

Reason I'm fleshing this out is that with Real Steel, people will (with good cause) slag it off for being the type of film that it is. But I like to focus on the positives. There was action, and the CGI was really impressive... I mean lets face it. You're not going into a film starring Hugh Jackman about Robot boxing for anything more are you? Sometimes you get a little bit more out of such flicks e.g. I, Robot, but at the same time, you can get a whole lot less e.g. Skyline. 

There were a few places where the film may have done a bit better. It could've had a plot (not a biggie). They could've cast a less annoying kid, (one who isn't scarily reminiscent of young Anakin). They could've done away with the really cheesy obvious product placement (won't name names because then they win). They could've rethought a glaringly obvious reshoot (worst I've seen in a long time...Hugh's close ups don't match for love nore money). And they could've cut a final sequence which doesn't make the audience laugh through the emotional climax (no suggestions for this)...

Still the robots were cool, and they mention Japan so...