by Ashley Penrod, Assistant Editor, and Matt Sernaker, Managing Editor
When the movie Real Steel was first announced, it seemed like we were just getting a movie loosely based on the concept of “Rock’em Sock’em Robots”. While robot fights do sound entertaining, audiences were treated to something far more special: a movie with heart. The story of the little robot named Atom captivated movie-goers with stunning visuals and deep characterization. Now Real Steel is available to own on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack!
Story:
Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman – X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is a has-been boxer traveling the country to promote his tin-cannish robot fighter. As is common in boxing movies, he owes a helluva lot of people a helluva lot of money, and is losing fight after fight and counting only on arrogance, which is just adding to his debt. But his financial predicament seems to be solved in the form of a tragic accident, which has killed his ex-wfe, leaving his 11 year old son without guardians. His son, Max (Dakota Goyo – Thor), is sought after by his wealthy Aunt Debra (Hope Davis – Charlie Bartlett) and Uncle Marvin (James Rebhorn – White Collar), who promise to provide Max with a better life than Charlie could hope to give him. As Charlie doesn’t have the time or patience for his son, he sets off to sign him away to his aunt, but circumstances allow Charlie a few months time with his son, as both the aunt and uncle will be vacationing in Italy – So, Charlie proceeds to sell his ‘babysitting’ services while the two are on holiday, and in return, he is promised a large sum of money (enough to pay his debts plus).
Charlie and his son begin an awkward power-struggle as they attempt to forge a relationship on the road. Because Max is an avid follower of Robot Boxing, as well as a gamer (what kid isn’t nowadays?), he finds his father’s work fascinating, and knows that he can add to it with his own skill and knowledge of the mechanics of the sport. While looking for spare parts in a junkyard, Max accidentally stumbles upon a buried robot from several generations earlier of Robot Boxing (literally stumbles, making this scene a pertinent one in the relationship between Charlie and Max). Though Charlie is vehemently opposed to it, Max manages to dig the robot up on his own, and with the help of Charlie’s “friend”, Bailey (Evangeline Lilly – LOST), Max cleans up his robot and marvels at the robot’s programming, which still works and allows him to shadow the movements of his human counterpart. With a little soap and a lot of time, Atom is born, and Max and Charlie take him to underground Robot Boxing matches to test what he is really made of. Goofing off, Max discovers that shadowing is entirely more fun than it initially seemed, and he teaches his robot to dance (even throwing poppin-and-locking and krumping in the mix….Incredibly entertaining). When Charlie sees this, he insists that Max make it an entry-move, and the dancing kid-and-robot duo quickly become newcomers to watch on the League Scene.
The movie progresses in a predictable manner; Atom starts off slowly beating robots among the scum of the underground, and gradually works his way up to The Robot Boxing League, and moves into professional territory. The League is where the undefeated Zeus reigns supreme, and when Atom unexpectedly wins a League match (in the process, becoming the People’s Favorite Robot Boxer), Max gets caught up in the hype of the win, and challenges Zeus and his sterotypically-rich-and-powerful trainers to a one-on-one, anytime, anyplace. What comes next is something that you have to experience for yourself.
Special Features:
- Feature Film
- Deleted & Extended Scenes with Introductions by Director Shawn Levy– After shooting the film, it was determined that one of the subplots referred to as the “Butterfly Story” was to be cut from the film. It is amazing how seamlessly they were able to cut an entire story from the film. Levy was excited to include these scenes on the Blu-ray release, but once you watch them you will see how it would have dramatically slowed down the overall story had they been included. The Extended Scene included in this release is the introduction of Ambush at the local fair.
- Countdown To The Fight: The Charlie Kenton Story
- Real Steel Second Screen: Ringside with Director Shawn Levy– Simultaneously explore exclusive interactive content with your iPad or computer as you watch the movie.
- Sugar Ray Leonard: Cornerman’s Champ– To get as much boxing authenticity into the film, the creative team went to Sugar Ray Leonard to lend his knowledge and experience. Watch as Leonard trains Jackman and offers some suggestions as to how the robot fighting sequences could be enhanced.
- Bloopers
- Making of Metal Valley
- Building The Bots – Did you know that they built 19 actual robots for this film? Neither did I. It turns out that thanks to a bit of encouragement from Spielberg, the creative team decided to actually create legitimate robots for use in Real Steel, allowing for the actors to have a phyiscal presence to play off of. After I learned this fact, I spent an entire viewing of the movie trying to figure out which moments were real robots and which ones were CGI. It is not as easy as you would think some of the time.
- Audio Commentary with Director Shawn Levy
- 1080p Video
- DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio
Overall:
It would be easy to go on and on about how amazing Real Steel turned out to be, how the characters and plot-points were completely believable and caused thick empathy among the audience, and how gorgeous the effects were…the list could go on. Yes, it is the ‘same old story’ (boxer who is out of commission takes one last shot, training an underdog to fight the mighty, undefeated power and money behind his opponent), but it is put together in a way that makes this movie sequenced perfectly, and executed with genuine emotion and action. Viewers will easily relate to the boxing-robots in far more of a real way than we ever did to Optimus Prime in Transformers (and these robots don’t even talk).
Make sure to add Real Steel to your “must watch” list, or you will miss out on something impressive.
ComicsOnline gives Real Steel on Blu-ray 5 out of 5 chances for the little guy.
Get your copy of Real Steel on Blu-ray at Amazon.
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