logan j. fowler and bill bodkin look at the Hugh Jackman robot boxing movie …
Theater, Rent, No Thanks, Undecided? No Thanks.
The trailer for Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robo … I mean Real Steel left me unimpressed. Sure, it has Hugh Jackman, a man who can work magic even in bad movies (see Swordfish or X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and Evangeline Lilly, a woman I’ve crushed on ever since I got into Lost earlier this year. However, the CGI looks severely bad, and the small child looks to border on annoying. I’m all about the underdog, but this doesn’t look to be Rocky with robots. In conclusion, I think I’ll be tossing Real Steel in the scrap pile.
— LJF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei5l3r1dV4I
Theater, Rent, No Thanks, Undecided? Rent.
The initial trailers for Real Steel had me in the same position my esteemed colleague is currently in. It looked terrible. Hugh Jackman is an inattentive father of an overly precocious child. Evangeline Lilly pouts and sighs showing she’s fed up with Jackman constantly letting the son down. But as fate would have it, the young boy discovers a robot that Jackman can train and develop to become the underdog king of robot boxing. And in the end, the two bond and the family is united. Seriously? I’d rather sit through Australia again. However, the newer trailers for Real Steel are all about one thing — robots beating the holy hell out of each other in brutal slow motion. Now that’s a movie I’d consider seeing. And let’s face it, Hugh Jackman knows how to be the bright spot of many a bad movie — Van Helsing, X3, Wolverine and yes, even the aforementioned awful epic Australia. This movie has potential to be enjoyable, a guilty pleasure … but it also could be disastrously bad. I’ll save it for the rental.
— BB
