In a future world where flesh-and-blood boxers have been replaced by towering mechanized fighters, pugilist-turned-promoter Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) reconnects with his estranged son, Max, to convert a discarded machine into a World Robot Boxing contender.
They didn’t seem to wait very long to reboot the Transformers franchise, and this attempt didn’t seem to fare much better than the previous two installments. All joking aside, this is actually just a live action rock’em sock’em robots movie. With it comes a very familiar underdog boxing story that is filled with plenty of clichéd cheesiness but is bailed out a bit by some surprisingly fun fighting sequences spread throughout the film.
With the boxing aspect of the story, you get absolutely nothing new from the predicable formula that comes with it. An undervalued robot with no chance in hell of winning, since it was found in a god damn junkyard, rallies up the strength to take on some of the best fighting robots in the world. It’s easy on the mind, and the simple plot is easy to follow. You have fun with this aspect of the film. It’s a tiny change of pace seeing how the robot handles itself rather than an actual human being. Where the film strays off and falls off the cliff is with the robots owners, the father and the boy he sells for money. This relationship between the two is so fake and forced; you just simply cannot get by just how terrible Hugh Jackman is as a father. It just isn’t possible for you to root for this guy to succeed, yet the film plays it off as one big funny joke. When you get to the climax, it goes completely over the top bad, and you realize that this is just a shot for shot remake of Rocky 6. That isn’t the type of film you should strive to become because it was awful.
Hugh Jackman plays the funny asshole of a father pretty well if that’s what they wanted to aim for, but something tells me that is not the idea they were looking to achieve. He doesn’t hurt the film, but it’s hard to root for a protagonist that isn’t relatable in the slightest. What makes matters worse is the child actor who I refuse to even look up the name for, comes across as a spoiled, bored, brat. Maybe it would have been better if the kid just fell off the cliff a quarter into the film. Then maybe we would have got a gritty robot fighting movie that would have ended up being a whole lot better.
Real Steal has some good action scenes that are pretty entertaining but they come at the cost of watching a terrible relationship bond that feels like filler material to just get to the next fight. If you have a kid, nephew, or mentally challenged adult with you, I am sure they will enjoy it. They seem to be the target audience for a film like this and at least you have an excuse to why you took time out of your day to see a film of this quality. Watch if you must, but try and avoid.
Overall Score: 3/10
