REAL STEEL: Steels the show


REAL STEEL
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo
At: PVR & others
Rated: 8/10
Not one for machines, even less for robots. But I guess there is a little bit of steel in all of us. Hence, this one with all its clanking, iron and mechanics holds you in complete wonderment so well handled and fleshed out are the non-human beings who dominate the screen. The thing about this robot-action-in-the-ring movie is that it is a fantastic blend of human emotions and all that jazz around the steel. Even as you fear that Real Steel will plunge into the uncomfortable childhood of a motherless child who takes the road with his estranged and totally insensitive father, you are ushered into the rare world of a normal bonding in the abnormal confines of uncomfortable relationships, dysfunctional by circumstances yet intense by coincidence.
No, there are no drinking binges by a loser in Hugh Jackman and nor is there depressing angst in the child. Together, they script a strong and interesting story of togetherness, not just amid themselves but also in the ring with their older generation kickboxing robot fished out of a massive junkyard.
Yes, the goons and the fights are there to keep the story going but the engaging film does not even once stray from its crux — and that’s a fight within a fight — the triumph of love in the time of robots. See it for sheer drama, sheer machinery and imagination stitched together keenly and cleverly.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, 9 October, 2011

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