If I were ten years old and Real Steel were about 30 minutes shorter (running time, 127 minutes) it would be an awesome movie. I mean, for a kid, what’s not to love about being able to control a humanoid robot and make him fight other humanoid robots, right?

If you don’t want to see Real Steel, just imagine a mashup of Over the Top (1987), Robot Jox (1990) and “BattleBots” (2000-2002)… and you have the entire Real Steel movie.

Real Steel has been nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects. I have a feeling Hugo has that category locked down, however.

RECOMMENDATION

Real Steel is worth a watch if you have a 10 year old son, nephew or little brother. It has enough action to keep your interest without leaving you looking forward to the end. However, as an adult with no children, I will probably not watch the movie ever again.

The disparity in IMDB rating and Rotten Tomatoes rating leads me to believe that people enjoy watching this movie with their kids.

Real Steel has a 7.2/10 rating on IMDB, is 59% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and has a 56/100 Metascore.