Evangeline Lilly and Hugh Jackman star in Real Steel, a boxing film about an underdog, just like Rocky. But in 2020 it is a robot named Atom rather than a club fighter in 1976 called Rocky Balboa…
Real Steel
"In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play" -Friederick Nietzsche
We have long imagined that the role of robots in our future would be to do the mundane and tedious tasks in our lives. Imagine instead a future where the robots are the sporting heroes and the entertainers. In the Real Steel version of the year 2020 robots are professional boxers, designed and controlled by celebrity computer geeks, and draw huge audiences.
And in the year 2020, just as in 1976, there is an underdog. Only this time it is a robot named Atom rather than a club fighter called Rocky Balboa.
Atom is discovered, owned and trained by Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) and his son 11 year old Max (Dakota Goyo). While Charlie is a down-and-out former boxer who almost made it as world champion, Max has just played far too many video games.
But in this version of the future, it is Max’s abilities that make the difference in top-level sport. To win a fight the robots have to be cleverly programmed and commanded in real time to deliver the best punch combinations. Somehow Atom’s software also manages to include courage, perseverance and loyalty and that makes him the people’s champion.
In his once-in-a-lifetime fight Atom goes up against "Zeus", a world champion akin to Rocky’s "Apollo" Creed. Any of you who have visited Philadelphia just to run up the steps of the Museum of Art will find many references to the Rocky movies. Apparently the final fight sequence is a blow by blow match to the one in Rocky IV.
But as well as being a story of the triumph of the underdog this is also a story of father and son finding common ground.
Max helps Charlie get his life together and Charlie gets to live out his robot boxing dream. Evangeline Lilly is sensational as Charlie’s friend Bailey. Her character provides the link to Charlie’s past and shows Max that his Dad was not always the man he is now.
I was interested to learn that Real Steel is based on a short story by Richard Matheson, author of I am Legend, which is another of my favourite films about life a few years from now.
Initially, I was a bit sceptical that this movie would work, but by the end of it I too was cheering for this underdog.
By Mark Brighouse 8 October 2011
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