Tag Archives: boxing

Real Steel – Because Childhood Toys Somehow Make for Good Movies

Real Steel is an action drama about a former boxer (Hugh Jackman) who, with the help of his estranged son (Dakota Goyo), gets one last shot at a comeback by building and training the perfect contender for the new high-tech sport of robot boxing.

Official Trailer:

If you haven’t guessed already from the trailer, the inspiration for this film is Mattel’s old Rock’em Sock’em Robots. Instead of the plastic toy counterparts, we’re treated with really cool shiny metal (“real steel”) robots. The film is set to be shown in regular conventional theatres but also be in IMAX theatres. So, IMAX viewers will be treated to high quality special FX.

Although the robo-boxing is the main draw for the film, it appears there will be a strong focus on the father-son relationship. I hope it all works out and doesn’t just become a fancy eye-FX-candy film, like the Transformers film series.

Hollywood seems to keep pulling their ideas from anything and everything. It’s interesting when they make movies from toys that don’t really have a storyline. Such as the upcoming movie, Battleship, inspired by the board game of the same name, looks to be more of a fancy action FX heavy movie than an action drama.