Real Steel
Tonight we went to see Real Steel, because I couldn't talk Jason into Footloose and he couldn't talk me into Moneyball. The reviews I'd read said that the father-son reconciliation plot elevated this movie beyond its premise. Not so much. The actors were good--Hugh Jackman makes battered & broken look beautiful and he and Evangeline Lily had a couple of good moments--and the kid is cute and the robots are kind of nifty when they're not beating the crap out of each other. If you don't think you'd like a boxing movie, then this is not the movie for you. It's a pretty straight cross between The Karate Kid and The Full Monty. If you're now picturing Mr Miyagi leaving his hat on, you're welcome. The odd thing was that there were a number of mentions and moments that suggested places they could have gone with this movie, but didn't.
• Given the number of times that Charlie thought out loud that Max was "nine or ten" only to be told that he's eleven, it could have turned out that Max wasn't actually Charlie's son, after all.
• The G2 might have been programmed by the Japanese robotics wizard's revered father.
• After Max described Atom as coming from a junkyard, he could have been revealed as stolen property.
It was worth the popcorn, but maybe not the price of an IMAX ticket.
• Given the number of times that Charlie thought out loud that Max was "nine or ten" only to be told that he's eleven, it could have turned out that Max wasn't actually Charlie's son, after all.
• The G2 might have been programmed by the Japanese robotics wizard's revered father.
• After Max described Atom as coming from a junkyard, he could have been revealed as stolen property.
It was worth the popcorn, but maybe not the price of an IMAX ticket.