For those who don't know the story, it concerns retired boxer Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), who makes something resembling a living training low-grade boxing robots to fight anywhere he thinks he can scrape a few hundred dollars from the prize money. He goes through a lot of robots, and given that the cost of these things runs into tens of thousands of dollars, he's perpetually broke.
His life changes, however, when his ex girlfriend dies and he's offered custody of his son, eleven-year-old Max (Dakota Goyo). He doesn't want this, but the boy's aunt and her rich husband definitely do, so he offers to take care of the boy for the summer and hand him over afterwards in exchange for a healthy sum of money to help him get back into the game. Charlie isn't really the paternal type, so he tries to hand the understandably miffed Max off to his friend, gym owner Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly). However, a shared passion for robot boxing gradually thaws relations between the three of them.
And the rest? It's a classic underdog boxing story, complete with sneering nemesis (Ricky, played by Kevin Durand) and a couple of icy foreign high achievers to provide the climactic challenge. Will our heroes make it big? Will Max and Charlie learn to love one another? Will Charlie and Bailey have smokin' hot self-realization sex? Well, no, in the third case, because it's a family movie, but you probably guessed as much, and if you did, the answer to the other two questions shouldn't present much of a challenge, either.
The good
Real Steel is a solid, polished piece of family entertainment. The performances are convincing, the effects look great and while the soundtrack isn't restrained, it is at least restrained by Danny Elfman's usual standards. There's a nice clear linear narrative, with nothing to scare the kids or bore the adults. Objectively speaking, the good reviews are deserved and there's not a lot of way I can fault it. So...The bad
...Why did I dislike this one so intensely?Could it have been the way that Max was essentially the victim of human trafficking, with this being treated as a meet cute rather than a truly disgusting act on Charlie's part? Or could it have been Max' relentless cynicism? Charlie is a grown man, which makes it understandable in him, but in an eleven-year-old kid? He actually comes across as a bit of an asshole, albeit not so much so that he deserves a father like Charlie. But Charlie softens, of course, and they bond, so presumably that all makes everything okay.
I honestly believe that Real Steel was conceived as a way to make divorced dads feel better about themselves when they watch it with their sons on weekend custody visits. It's relentlessly masculine and incredibly sentimental, the father/son equivalent of a chick flick and equally hard to swallow if you don't buy into that sort of thing.
I think what depressed me the movie was its tremendously low expectations; the feeling that rather than being somebody's creative vision, it was made by committee to please as many people as possible, or at least, not to offend them.
Actually, no, what depressed me the most is quite how much people seemed to enjoy it and not to notice what looks to me like a masterclass in cinematic button-pushing. Also, it must be said, Real Steel fails the Bechdel Test possibly more comprehensively than any movie I can remember seeing, creating a fascinating character in Bailey Tallet and then turning her into nothing more than a glorified cheerleader.
I really, really hate that this is what the big studios think people want and need.
No comments:
Post a Comment