So How Good Was That Movie? 
In theaters Friday, October 07, 2011
I watch movies a lot. Feelings are stirred in movies that often span a vast range. Yet, once in a while you come across a movie that just makes you feel good. I know that Steven Spielberg does not associate his name with nonsense, but this movie is just uniquely good. It shines in its simplicity. A tale of David versus Goliath intertwined with robotic violence, romance, forgiveness, and epic fights, stirred… not shaken. Those who have read my reviews for a while remember me complaining about the flood of lazy productions in Hollywood. Well this movie might be guilty of many things, but lazy production is not one of them.
I saw the trailer, and thought to myself that on a rainy Floridian day, it may be worth to give it a try, and I was pleasantly surprised. The movie is an outstanding pillar in its genre. It learns from the mistakes of past features, and uses technology as a continuation of and extension to the humans, not a replacement despite of what the plot may suggest.
There was a hint of 1987 Over the Top in which a struggling trucker is trying to rebuild his life and reconnect with his son after his wife’s death. Except in this movie, the man is a former boxer who is still trying to catch his glory days in a futuristic era where boxers have been replaced by fighting robots. The notion of making robots fight instead of humans is not genuine in it of itself, but the story telling in the piece of art makes it stand out. There is also a lot of hints from the 1976 movie Rocky. In Real Steal, The World Champion is challenged by a rising robot name Atom, and let us just say that the ending is “Rockyesque.” Some daring viewers, with phenomenal memories, might even draw similarities to the 1990 Robot Jox.
Hugh Jackman (2008 Australia, 2004 Van Helsing, 2000 X-Men) delivers a balanced and believable performance. His despair is palpable in the prime of the feature, and his new found hope is contagious as the flick goes on. This movie demonstrated how romance can be portrayed without leveraging useless skin, and how tenderness on screen does not require nudity or sex. The dialogues are quick and straight to the point, bringing right back to the story and the action. The kid played by Dakota Goyo (he was the young Thor earlier this year) is at times a bit over the top, but in retrospect, it was required to counter-balance the lack of narration and the absence of character history.
The dynamic between Evangeline Lilly (Lost, 2008 The Hurt Locker) and Hugh Jackman is subtle, deep, and touching. The little bit of screen time that the relationship is given spreads throughout the movie so that the bits and pieces culminate in the end where without words being spoken, the viewer is emotionally carried into Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly)’s heart. Plus, their confrontations are almost as tender as their embrace.
David Alan Basche and Phil LaMarr made stellar ESPN commentators, and brought that real sports sense to the movie. They were so natural in their role that it all seemed fitting, beside the blatant product placements by Bing, Sprint, HP and others. Then again, we are bombarded by so many product placements in real life that come to think of it, that part was also too real.
Shawn Levy, the director who has championed family movies (2006 Night at the Museum, 2006 The Pink Panther, 2003 Cheaper by the Dozen) demonstrated here that action movies can be made accessible to the entire family using balanced humor and wit, and without selling out on the quality of the action itself. His talent combined with outstanding special effects, and a soundtrack that takes from ballads through the country roads to pumping your fist to Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” made me conclude that this is great movie.
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