Real Steel is directed by Shawn Levy and collectively adapted to the screen by John Gatins, Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven from a Richard Matheson short story called Steel. It stars Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis and James Rebhorn. Music is scored by Danny Elfman and cinematography by Mauro Fiore.

Set in the near future, robot boxing is a big crowd pulling sport. After a struggling robot operator is introduced to an 11-year-old son he has never known, they stumble upon a discarded robot at a junk yard....

We can all moan about the mimicry of an idea and the clichés that dominate Real Steel, but you really got to hand it to the makers for what they have achieved. They have crafted a family film that's very much perfect in this day and age. The story is one that any adult Sylvester Stallone fan can acknowledge and appreciate, the human heartbeat pleasingly steady, while the premise of big colourful robots beating the crap out of each other delights youngsters and us adults who are still young at heart. Film pretty much does what any other film of this type does, lays on the syrup in the last quarter where second chances and family strife come thundering through the plotting. Undeniably it's hugely derivative, events are joystick operated to get an emotional response from a family audience, while product placement reins and the script often sags under the weight of unoriginality. But it does uplift the spirit and getting to the end is easy since it's so much berserker fun. Yes it's the robot Atom, the people's champion, yes it's David vS Goliath and yes! It's Balboa vS Creed. Nothing wrong with that really.

The cast don't really have to offer up much beyond being adequate within the context of the material, though a muscular Jackman finds good paternal chemistry with young Goyo. In fact Goyo is pleasingly not annoying, always a bonus is that. Inevitably the robots are the stars, they're a triumph of design and visual effects and a sight for sore eyes, while Levy has a good handle on staging the fight sequences - even when cribbing from Balboa. The near future look is terrific as well, with Fiore's colour photography very appealing. Coining in over $290 million at the worldwide box office (over £180 million in profit),Real Steel found the family audience it was looking for, proving once again that there is a market for simple and effective popcorn carnage. It's not high art or intelligently scripted, but was anyone seriously thinking that was going to be the case here? If you want brains with this premise then seek out Twilight Zone episode "Steel", starring the excellent Lee Marvin, otherwise just sit back and enjoy the ride and let the botty bots and human interest raise the pulse and gladden the heart respectively. 7/10

Home format release is a sparkling print, extras are annoyingly short but the blooper reel is fun, we get a stunt deconstruction, and we learn about the influence a certain Mr. Spielberg had on the production.

I had seen this film a couple of times in the last years and I enjoyed it every time.

The movie has various robot fighting and every robot has its own personality mixing all with a perfect blend of emotions.

For me the robot fighting was great. All late Huge Jackman's movies are good. There are also some comic scenes and the movie has an embedded message: you can always make things that sometimes you can not handle when you have other priorities; it may be hard but it can be done.

Dakota Goyo (the kid) did a good job as well.

I would watch again gladly this movie!

Real Steel is robot boxing with a mixture of Rocky and another Stallone vehicle, Over the Top which was about arm wrestling and Stallone bonding with his son.

Hugh Jackman plays a loser of a robot boxing hustler who ends up looking after his son that he once abandoned, not before selling him to the boy's aunt's husband at first. However before handing him over he gets to spend a few weeks with him and they come across an old robot which his son finds and fixes up and they start to win some fights.

The film is cheesy as hell. Dakota Goyo is decent enough but the script makes him an irritating twerp, its not the actor's fault that the script is lame. This is a kid whose mum has just died yet he seems to be high as a hill of beans!

The CGI and robot fight action is very good, I even find the kid dancing with the robot charming but it steals too much from Rocky. The climax even steals from the Ali v Foreman, Rumble in the Jungle.

The film starts off very badly, Jackman's character is also charmless at the beginning and of course father and son do eventually bond. However it does feel too much like a big budget kids film more appropriate for the Disney channel.