Real Steel

I watched a screening of Real Steel (DreamWorks Pictures) earlier this week. The movie is about a man (Charlie Kenton), his son (Max), and their boxing robot (Atom). When I first saw the trailers for this film, I thought it was about the old Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots by Mattel. There was a scene that reference the toy, but the movie isn’t based on the old Rockem Sockem toys. It’s actually based on Richard Matheson’s short story (titled Steel). Matheson also wrote the story that the I Am Legend movie was based on. Bottom line: Real Steel is about a father and his estranged son developing a bond through their love of robot boxing. I thought the movie was very entertaining. The ending was predictable, but the robot boxing scenes kept me on the edge of my seat. I found myself rooting for Atom the robot even though Atom was clearly a machine and didn’t have any personality.