Robots pack a mean punch

Set in the near future, where robot boxing is a top sport, struggling promoter Charlie Kenton feels he has found a champion in a discarded robot in Real Steel (12A).

During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father.

The former boxer owes lots of money to loan sharks. During a fight, Kenton’s robot, Ambush, is destroyed by Black Thunder and now he owes a further $20,000.

Kenton then visits his friend, Bailey Tallet, who runs the boxing gym of her late father. He buys a second-hand WRB league robot and arranges it to fight on the illegal boxing circuit but things do not go according to plan.

Directed by Shawn Levy, the film is based on the 1956 short story, Steel, by Richard Matheson. It stars Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie and Kevin Durand.

Real Steel can be seen at Newark’s Reel Cinema.