Near future: robot fighting is hugely popular and there’s a lot of money in it. Charlie accepts a bet that pits his robot against a bull. He gambles money he doesn’t have, gets distracted, loses, and his robot is smashed to pieces. Demoralised, he’s told on the way home that the mother of his son has died, leaving him custody of a boy he doesn’t know. He wants no part of it, but when he sees that the family is comfortably off, he strikes a deal that pays him a tidy sum if he takes the lad for two months of the summer. Without planning it, his son gets drawn into robot fighting…
What have we got?
- A film aimed at teenagers, designed to entertain, impress and move young and old alike.
- Very realistic special effects, so well done you hardly notice them.
- Big-name producers (Spielberg, Zemeckis), the sort who sometimes bring a bit of magic to the cinema.
- Popular actors who suit their roles very well.
- A simple, predictable, easy film.
What haven’t we got?
- Any pretension in the script: no complications, no social or technological critique.
- Deep characters or an original story.
How does it turn out?
An easy-to-digest, entertaining product, the kind you can watch again and again. The script has the robots (and effects) of Transformers and a little of the sensitivity of E.T., but above all it recalls two Stallone films: Over the Top (the one about the trucker who arm-wrestles with his son in tow; you’ve surely seen it!) and Rocky IV (the one with the Russian, Ivan Drago). The difference is that here the fighters, the robots, are spectacular. In return, the script isn’t very demanding when it comes to characters or story. It’s based on a short story from the 1950s, ‘Steel’, which was later adapted as an episode of the wonderful The Twilight Zone.
The lead is Dakota Goyo (you may know him as the young Thor), an 11-year-old who hogs the screen, lectures his father and is, at the very least, a prodigy (just like in those 80s films where the kids were the cleverest and always right). Hugh Jackman (famous for X-Men and the excellent The Prestige) plays the irresponsible father, an ex-boxer who could have had it all but can’t take responsibility for anything, which makes him a loser. He’s perfect in the part, which looks tailor-made for him. Evangeline Lilly (Lost) is his girlfriend; she brings sensitivity and a smile, though she cries too much. Even with a muddled character, she’s fine.
Basically you’ll see robot fights in different settings, alongside a story about a father and son, about self-improvement and fighting for what you want. It has that Spielberg habit of going for the easy tear, and of being an unpretentious film you can happily watch many times. But what really stands out is the boxing between robots, which is spectacular.
Watch it if you want to know what happens when you combine boxing and robots; it doesn’t disappoint on that front. It’s also entertaining and easy to watch, as long as you’re not too demanding. Film buffs who are allergic to Hollywood products should steer clear.
Recommended, and entertaining.