Director Shawn Levy's 'Rocky v Robot Wars' movie looks technically fabulous – but will it push all the right boys' own buttons? Watch the first round of footage here
We're now almost two-thirds of the way through 2011 and so far it's been, if not exactly a vintage year, a surprisingly decent one for fanboy fare. While there's been little truly thought-provoking (such as 2009's District 9 or last year's Inception), there have been plenty of movies that have pushed all the right boys' own buttons and delivered better value entertainment than anyone might have expected: I'm thinking (in particular) Source Code, Thor, Captain America and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The first looked like Duncan Jones's foray into director-for-hire territory but turned out to be a pleasingly weird, sinister thriller with a classy Hitchcockian edge, a terrific cast and surprising heart. The next pair did all that might be expected of two of Marvel's less-celebrated properties, and the latter was a supremely silly but intensely watchable update of the long-running intelligent monkey saga. Now as we head into the autumn, let's hope our luck holds out, because Real Steel is another of those movies which flops on paper, yet when you actually see footage of the thing, looks surprisingly decent.
The basic premise here is Rocky v Robot Wars, with Hugh Jackman as a retired, down-on-his-luck ex-prize fighter who decides to build and train a machine to take part in the popular robot boxing championships. A featurette has just been posted in which Jackman and co go into the background of the story, though I'm not sure it really needs much explanation. There's a strong hint of two-player "beat-em-up" video game to the fight scenes, with all those colourful pugilistic hunks of metal competing for the crowd's attention, like a sort of techno Tekken. This is the kind of movie which Arnold Schwarzenegger would be making in 2011 if he were 30 years younger: in his absence, Jackman is probably the best available replacement.
Do we really need another movie about giant fighting robots after the execrable Transformers: Dark of the Moon? Probably not, but at least on this occasion the combatants have the good sense to keep their mouths closed. Michael Bay has taught us that giant robots only know how to speak in irritatingly faux-portentous soundbytes, so this is presumably a blessing. It's probably more of a concern that the director here is Shawn Levy, he of the Night of the Museum films, Cheaper by the Dozen and … oh Lord have mercy … the Steve Martin Pink Panther remake. Is this really the guy to add those little touches of class and insight which will make the film stand out?
Real Steel has decent 1950s sci-fi credentials, being based on the Richard Matheson story Steel from 1956. The US writer wrote the book I am Legend which has been the basis of three films, the Will Smith version from 2007, Vincent Price horror The Last Man on Earth from 1964 and Charlton Heston vehicle The Omega Man from 1971. Levy has reportedly excised the typically Mathesonesque dystopian setting of Steel and replaced it with a warmer "Americana" feel which better suits the film's emphasis on a father (Jackman) re-bonding with his estranged son. This doesn't exactly bode well – why is it that Hollywood always seems so desperate to play up the prosaic, "universal" aspects of a story when such ham-fisted tinkering usually only diminishes its impact? At least we're probably going to be spared the grisly old fight vet cliche here (I'm thinking the splendid Burgess Meredith in Rocky) since Jackman's character partly fits that glove, but one gets the impression that Levy may have a few more hokey stereotypes up his sleeves.
On the plus side, Real Steel looks technically fabulous, and I'm loving the imagination and attention to detail put into the design of the various robots. If 2011 is a year of no-brainer semi-brilliance, it might just be worth holding out hope that Levy can deliver a well-realised popcorn flick (as opposed to one that's just plain corny). Real Steel arrives in cinemas in the US on 7 October, and the UK a week later. Can it punch above its weight in this year's schedule, or are you expecting the film to be laid prostrate on the canvas before the first round is out?
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/aug/26/hugh-jackman-real-steel-footage
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