Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Movie Review: Real Steel

Real Steel
I forgot I'd added Real Steel to my Netflix Queue until it showed up. I was watching it for about five minutes while I wrote a letter to a friend of mine. The thing with Hollywood movies is that they're predictable. I wrote out my prediction of the movie and how it would go and was finished by the time the kid was first stepping into the estranged dad's house or shop. Whatever it is.
Then I watched the movie to see how close my prediction was. I didn't have high hopes for the movie. It was telegraphing what was going to happen so broadly, so incredibly broadly, in the first few minutes. How good could it be?
Visually it was really great. I couldn't tell the robots weren't real. They looked as real as anybody else on the screen.
The acting was good. I bought it. I enjoyed it. How did I feel about the science of it? Well. It was ridiculous of course. Why would a robot doing body blows or or headshots make any difference? It's not like they can be winded. They are mechanical, like cars. But, even though my brain knew that I would still find myself on the edge of the seat during some of the fights. The fight against the two-headed robot at the beginning of his professional career? Yeah. That had me on the edge of my seat and holding my breath. And when he challenged Zeus? OH. MY. GLOB! How great was that? 
So, yeah. I'm not giving away much. Like I said, it was really predictable. But the actors were good and the writing was good too. I recommend the movie for good summer fun.

No comments: