DreamWorks Pictures Real Steel has had its share of criticism since the first trailer hit the web. One particularly amusing comment was, “why should I care about robot boxing?” – this was coming from a guy who flocked to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. “It looks like such a cliché” – a statement which is itself a cliché these days. To me, all the advance negativity has made the film somewhat of an underdog in spite of its dream team of talent, including director Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum), producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis and star Hugh Jackman. This is, however, quite fitting as its rousing story follows three down-and-out characters fighting for their shot at greatness. It’s like the Rocky of robot movies, and it could be the sleeper hit of the fall season.
“[This movie] is way more in the sports movie paradigm than the science fiction paradigm,” said Levy on the Detroit, Michigan set of his pricey new production, and based on what I saw at the city’s famous Cobo Center, he wasn’t kidding. When I first walked into the arena, it looked like a major heavyweight fight had just ended. The place was mostly empty, with a few dozen spectators (who were really extras) lingering in the stands, trying to get a closer look at their champion before he left the ring. The filmmaker was actually shooting what I believe may be the final scene in the picture: the camera is set up behind Jackman, Dakota Goyo (who plays his estranged son) and Atom, the nearly obsolete sparring-bot that connects the two, and it’s slowly pulled upward to capture a rapturous crowd cheering as the trio embraces their World Robot Boxing league victory and one another. All this is set to a booming orchestral score that sounded a lot like the final notes from the original Rocky, which made it difficult for the lot of journalists (myself included) on set to keep nostalgic tears from running down our cheeks, but that’s the very emotional response that Levy and Jackman are hoping Real Steel will give audiences.
“When Spielberg called me up and asked if I’d do this movie, I said ‘yes, but I don’t want to do just another robot fetish movie.’ [I want to] do a movie that has robots in it, but make it unabashedly human,” the filmmaker told us after showing the group an FX-heavy sizzle reel and footage of Sugar Ray Leonard choreographing various fights. Though he was admittedly fascinated by the technology his visual effects team used to create the bot-bouts (including software developed for Avatar), Levy was adamant about the spectacle never overpowering the soul of the film: “The father-son story is not in Richard Matheson’s short story (from which John Gatins’ script is based), but it became the heart of the movie.”
It’s the unlikely bond between not only an absentee father and the son he never knew he had that’s at the center of Real Steel, but their connection to Atom as well, and the degree that the filmmakers can make you believe in this “love triangle” of sorts is the biggest challenge the movie faces. “The movie is really less boxing than you’d imagine. There are a few key fights, but really it’s just [about] relationships,” said Jackman when asked about whether it was the futuristic setting or the family drama that drew him to the project. “We have to always remember that the sport has to be relevant to the story so the story can work without the sport.” And so, if you removed robot boxing from the film entirely you’d be left with an endearing (if formulaic) narrative and some strong, conflicted characters; two elements of production that can make any film a winner.
For his part, Jackman seemed to be thrilled with getting to play former bruiser turned robo-promotor Charlie Kenton: “The thing about Charlie, and what I’ve really enjoyed about him, is that he’s desperate. He’s down and out, but he’s also a really charming character in a way. His actions are pretty reprehensible in the first part of the movie, but you don’t hate him. He’s trying for another chance, and because you understand where he’s coming from, you’re kind of [hopefully] on his side.” If the whole cast is as enthusiastic about their roles as Jackman, and if their performances are as multi-faceted as he says his is, it may not matter what any naysayers think about robot boxing.
Click here to read about what Levy and Jackman had to say on the set of the film!