Real Steel – A Sci-Fi Tale

Having its first trailer released in December 2010 and its second trailer in May of this year, the movie Real Steel is scheduled to be released on October 7, 2011. Set in the future, the movie depicts a time when human boxing has become extinct as a result of the popularity that robot-boxing has brought with it. Hugh Jackman plays Charlie Kenton, a former fighter who lost his chance at stardom and a title when the robots took over the ring. He is forced to become a small-time promoter in order to survive.

Charlie is not a pleasant guy, and after his ex-wife dies, he reluctantly agrees to babysit his own son max (Dakota Mayo) when the boy’s aunt has to travel for two weeks. Mind you, he does this for cash, so you know this is not your average run-of-the-mill dad. Father and son have only one thing in common, and that is boxing, though Charlie prefers the human aspect of it while his son loves the action that is robot-boxing. They team up to build a robot that contends in the championship.

The film is based on the 1956 short story ‘Steel’ by Richard Matheson. However, while the short story illustrates a cold-feeling dystopia, the setting for Real Steel is meant to exude nostalgia with the father-son storyline. While the first trailer focused on the robots, with sights and sounds depicting a semi-futuristic world, the second trailer showed the father-son drama of it all. Director and producer Shawn Levy states that though very much the robo-boxing movie, that is but one piece of the broader Real Steel spectrum.

You will indeed be entertained by the steel-on-steel action of the robots bashing each other apart. However, Atom, the scrapped machine that father and son refurbish when all hope seems lost, is remote controlled rather than a free-thinking entity, bringing the focus back to our human characters. Real Steel is a must-watch for sci-fi lovers and will provide great family entertainment as well.