Image Credit: Tina Gill/PR Photos Real Steel
Merchant Ivory family-friendly boxing robot action flick, had its world premiere in Los Angeles Sunday. Jackman, along with his Real Steel co-stars Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, and youngster Dakota Goyo, as well as boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard (who choreographed the moves of the robots through motion-capture animation), rapper 50 Cent (who is featured on the film’s soundtrack), and stars like Nikki Reed, Chord Overstreet, Rico Rodriguez, and of course, some robots, all hit the (very hot) red carpet yesterday for the movie’s premiere.
So what did the stars have to say about their big budget, big sparring robots flick? Well, that it’s heart may be the biggest thing of all. As Jackman told EW at the premiere, “The film is fantastic. I am so proud of it. And I have seen it with audiences of all ages around the world and everyone seems to really enjoy it. There is something in there for everyone.” And the actor, who plays a former boxer who builds and trains a boxing robot with his son (Goyo), emphasized to TrailerAddict.com that aside from the obvious crowd-pleasers — the robots — audiences are getting caught up in the film’s romantic and familial storylines. “They connect to the heart of it,” he said. Watch:
Lilly mimicked Jackman, saying the emotional side of the film made her sign up. “I believe the strength of this film is in the heart of this film,” she said. Watch the rest of the clip, in which the Lost actress explains why the movie is “great big fun”:
While some laughed off Real Steel‘s central storyline when the project was first announced, could the film be a total box office knock-out when it hits theaters this weekend? It seems chatter around the picture has warmed in the past months. And how could it not? After all, it has all the elements of a crowd-pleasing sports movie… plus robots! It seems like Real Steel could be taking the spare parts from Transformers, which had plenty of robots but no trace of human emotion, and Warrior, which had no robots but plenty of fighting and heart, and turning them into one super uplifting robot movie. (In other words, watch out, WALL•E!)
Real Steel arrives in theaters on Friday, Oct. 7.
Are you interested in Real Steel, PopWatchers? Or have you not yet been programmed to love? Share in the comments section below!
(Reporting by Carrie Bell)
Read more:
Hugh Jackman talks ‘Real Steel’
Hugh Jackman in ‘Real Steel’: Watch the trailer
In a fight, how will ‘Real Steel’ compare to your favorite robot movies?
It’s (very) loosely based on an old Twilight Zone episode, or at least the Richard Matheson story the TZ episode was based on. But it seems to have eliminated the central plot point from that story (which I won’t explain in case it’s a spoiler). Hence, I’m wondering what the theme actually is.
Don’t get me wrong…I love me some Hugh Jackman. But I just can’t get excited for what will be essentially “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots: The Movie”.
I totally agree…I love Hugh Jackman, but this looks pretty bad. Is that a time-traveling Jake Lloyd as the kid…?
You guys need to get over the stupid “Rock em sock em robots thing ) (Does that game even exist outside ~North America? It’s naff all to do t=with that; based on 2 sources that pre-date the game by years and is a very, very entertaining film.
After Lost began, I thought the gorgeous and talented Evangeline Lilly had a promising career ahead of her and would become a bigger star but she has done so little in the last seven years. I hope she’ll have a career renaissance with Real Steel and The Hobbit films and do more mainstream movies from now on. Good for her to keep landing such high profile roles. She deserves it. It’s an exceptional performance by her in Real Steel, just wonderful.
LOL. Nice try, industry shill.
I was lucky to have read a first draft of the script and knew early on that the storyline will appeal to the heart, in addition to being a fun movie. Looking forward to seeing it on its first day of showing!
and being a hollywood plant you are contracted to say that on as many websites as you can.
This! ^^^^^^^^^
Honestly, this looks so unintentionally hilarious that it’s got “multiple Razzie winner” written all over it.
Thank you for using my photo for this article!
It’s a family friendly movie that doesn’t involve talking animals. Plus, it has the deliciousness that is Hugh Jackman. It gets major points for those two reasons.
Put your preconceptions aside (Americans forget your random Rock Em Sock game, that the book this is based on was out years earlier) This is great family entertainment. It is funny, it is heart warming, it is dramatic and has great action. One of the most fun films I’ve seen all year. Our audience loved it too.There’s a lot to follow up on and expand in future films, so II hope people give the film a fair shot. If they do, most of them will love it; and we’ll hopefully get a better, deeper and just as fun sequel. ((They’re writing it anyway.)
As in the book that the film is based on was out years before the game…
I saw an advance screening. It’s as silly as it looks without stepping an inch into so-bad-it’s-good territory. It was just dumb. Dumb with shoehorned-in, phony “heart.” But the audience I saw it with seemed to enjoy it. It may be the exact right kind of dumb to be successful.
To each their own, but simple and dumb are not the same ting and it is not a dumb movie at all. From my own experience and what I’ve read, including your comments, people are loving the film more than they are hating it, which would suggest ( readers) that you are more likely to enjoy the film than not; even E.B is ‘effectively’ saying as much.
Simple and dumb are two different things. I never called the movie simple. I called it dumb, and it most definitely is that. I more than “effectively” said people might enjoy it. I didn’t and wouldn’t say “likely” or “love.” I saw it with someone who really wanted to see it who dismissed it as a kids’ trifle in the end. Most of the people who seemed to be responding to it were people there with kids. People like that are often drawn to movies with no bad words and no emotions, ie: safe and boring movies. So it could be successful. But successful and enjoyable are not the same thing.
Well, it looks interesting to me. Won’t see it in theatres because I can’t really afford it unless I have a huge stroke of luck and get a large sum of money that I can use to do what I want and need with until I find a job or can start something online, then I may just.
Looks like a terrible movie. Can’t imagine what the appeal was to green-lighting this pitch: “Hey gang, let’s take the graceful brutality of boxing, but subtract any personal investment in the outcome by having tin can surrogates tossing haymakers at each other! Oh, and tack on a strained father-son redemption story straight from ‘Over the Top.’ Sound good? Okay great, who has $150 million to dump into this craptasm?” And that’s why studio heads get the big bucks.
Definitely looking forward to seeing it.
I remember it from the Twilight Zone episode with Lee Marvin – “STEEL”, which are one of my favorite Zone episodes.
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