I’m a little late reviewing this movie as I was not highly motivated to go see it. Before I get into the criticisms of this movie (and there are many), let me start off by saying that I did have a good time and enjoyed myself. This movie targets the same demographics as the Transformers series, but unlike the Transformers, there is a story and characters we cared about. If I had to describe this movie, it would be Transformers meets Rocky meets Rokem’ Sokem’ robots (the child hood game).
The story takes place in the near future where robots have taken over in the boxing ring as the public constantly wants bigger and badder entertainment. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a once fighter who had a title chance before robots took over. He is now a small time boxing promoter trying to scrape by in underground robot fighting. His life is a mess and he continues to spiral downwards with no end in sight. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he discovers that an estranged girlfriend of his died and his 9 year old son Max (Dakota Goyo), whom he barely knows, suddenly comes back into his life. Through a series of questionable legal maneuvers (only in the movies), Charlie finds a way of making money by agreeing to take care of his son for the summer until his deceased wife’s wealthy sister can take care of him. Charlie plans to leave Max in the care of his girlfriend (Evangeline Lilly), but Max forces Charlie to take him along by confiscating his keys (I rolled my eyes too). What follows is a no holds bar foray into the world of underground robot boxing. I didn’t know they would even let a 9 year old into those type of clubs, but hey, it’s a movie. As the stakes are raised, Charlie and Max must assemble a robot that will take them to the ultimate robot championship, while finding each other in the process (I know, I’m wincing as I write this).
Again, I enjoyed this movie, but I also felt that the enjoyment was manipulated and not organic. This was cookie cutter film making. The movie followed the underdog genre as close as a paint by numbers landscape painting kit. Like a paint by numbers set, you appreciate the picture after it’s done, but there is no satisfaction and just a bit of guilt for how uninspired it is.
One thing I never overcame was Hugh Jackman. He was supposed to play a down and out over the hill man hitting rock bottom, but frankly, Hugh is just too good looking for this role. He is as clean cut and chiseled as he has ever been and he flashes his charming smile more often than George Clooney at a Sports Illustrated photo shoot. He looks like a guy at the top of his game as opposed to a bottom dweller. They throw in a 5 o’clock shadow, but even that is emaculately groomed. Then of course the thing I hate the most; precocious kids. I’m not sure why writers consider obnoxious know-it-all kids to be endearing, but Max really was annoying. And I never bought how a 9 year old can navigate the adult world better than any adult. Especially the underground world, where any kid would be wetting his pants dealing with shady characters and brutal situations. Max has no problem talking smack to leather clad mohawked drug addicts. Max just proceeds along teaching his father wholesome family values while dwelling in cesspools of humanity.
I will say that I am thankful they tried to develop the characters, but it was just all so contrived that not only could I predict what was going to happen in the next scene, I could almost predict what the next lines of dialogue would be.
The villains were generic rich bad guys and I’m still not quite sure how the down and out father and son team managed to score a world title fight with a few months, but of course they did. I’m not going to give any plot spoilers other than if you’ve seen any Rocky movie then you’ve seen this. I even read somewhere, that some of the choreography was taken directly from Rocky IV (Sugar Ray Leonard was a consultant for the rest).
This would be a great movie to take any kids in your family and have everyone enjoy it, but if you are looking for something even marginally sophisticated, then move on. There’s a lot of emotional heart-string tugging and a lot of vibrating bass in the soundtrack to give the film the illusion of gravitas, but it’s about as heavy as a helium balloon.
Fun, but I can’t recommend anything other than a family outing.
I give this film **stars
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