Real Steel Charlie Kenton Character Traits
MOVIE ANALYSIS
REAL STEEL
(Shawn Levy)
MAIN CHARACTERS: * * Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton * Dakota Goyo as Max Kenton * Evangeline Lilly as Bailey Tallet * Anthony Mackie as Finn * Olga Fonda as Farra Lemkova * Karl Yune as Tak Mashido * Kevin Durand as Ricky * Hope Davis as Debra * James Rebhorn as Marvin
SUMMARY
Real Steal takes place in the near-future, where robots have taken the place of humans in the sport of boxing. Charlie Kenton is a former fighter who now makes a living controlling these robots in freelance matches all across America. After losing yet another match and another robot, Charlie needs cash to buy a new robot, so that he can win enough money to pay off his increasingly violent creditors. Charlie receives a court summons forcing him to travel to New York to …show more content…
release custody of his 11 year-old-son Max by a former girl-friend, who he has never met, to her rich sister and husband. Seeing a way of financing his next robot, Charlie cons fifty grand out of the husband before signing over the boy. However, before they take custody of Max, Charlie must take care of Max for the summer, while the rich couple vacation in Europe.
Charlie uses his money to buy a former “champ” robot and is about to leave Max behind, but the stubborn Max insists on coming along to the fight. Charlie gets a headline fight, but his cockiness in the bout costs him both the robot and a beating at the hands of his creditors. Looking to steal spare parts to fix his robot, Charlie and Max break into a junk yard and accidentally stumble on an abandoned sparing robot, which Max insists on bringing back with them to repair. With the help of Charlie’s girlfriend Bailey, they repair the old sparing robot, which Max dubs Atom. While Charlie is off trying to find the parts to fix his damaged champion robot, Max uses the vocal command parts from it to control Atom. Soon, Max has Atom up and running and discovers that Atom has a shadow program built into it that allows it to mimic the moves of its controller. Max insists that Charlie enter Atom in a fight, so Charlie reluctantly allows Max a local bout and much to his surprise, Atom and Charlie win the match. Soon, Max and Charlie are wining fights all around the country, eventually earning a chance at the professional circuit and a match with the champ Zeus!
Real Steel is not even remotely believable as science fiction, because the near future depicted in the film looks identical to our present; only with the addition of giant fighting robots. While much of the film is dedicated to demonstrating the physical dynamics of the robots and how their controllers are partnered with them, there is no consistency in the level of technology that is used even at the professional level.
What the film attempts to do is fill the void of futuristic world building with emotional gravitas.
We’re supposed to care enough about the father and son relationship, so that we’ll not only overlook the technological incongruities, but the fabricated plot furthering devices as well. That is the major problem I had with Real Steel: I did not like either Charlie or Max as characters and I never once believed in the contrivance of their bonding in the film. Part of the problem with Charlie’s character is that for most of the first third of the film, Charlie is portrayed as a self-centered, irresponsible lummox, who’s only goal in life seems to be to get another robot to enter into a fight. He sells off his own child to pay for a robot and later we’re supposed to shrug this off with a laugh after Charlie and Max suddenly hit it off upon finding a common goal with Max robot Atom. Max is also extremely unlikeable; being nearly as self-centered and pig-headed as his estranged father! Why we’re supposed to suddenly like these two characters just because they both share the same selfish ambitions to become successful at robot fighting is beyond
me.
The only real positive to Real Steel is the fighting robot sequences. The combination of animatronics and digital animation is nearly flawless. Unfortunately, the choreography of the fights themselves was not very inventive, so a lot of the work that went into making the robots realistic looking was wasted on unimaginative matches.
Real Steel should have been at the very least a light-hearted sci-fi action drama. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a pointless exercise in juvenile wish fulfillment and an unsophisticated emotional manipulation machination.
HOW WAS THE MOVIE MADE?
"Real Steel" is an action drama about a former boxer (Hugh Jackman) who, against all odds, gets one last shot at a comeback when he teams up with his estranged son (Dakota Goyo) to build and train the perfect contender for the now hi-tech sport of robot boxing.
While Real Steel is garnering excellent reviews based on its powerful story and engaging characters, it is the visual spectacle of massive robots in the boxing ring that make for some of the movie’s most rousing scenes. Those boxing matches were conceived, planned and executed using an innovative process that gave the filmmakers unprecedented creative freedom and efficiency by taking virtual production out of the studio and bringing it into real-world settings. Director Shawn Levy wanted the boxing matches between eight-foot tall CG robots to feel truly visceral and natural, so he called on Digital Domain and visual effects supervisor Erik Nash to make it so. The team designed a virtual production workflow that allowed Levy to direct CG characters as if they were actually present on set – in the boxing rings where background plates were shot – just like he would shoot any other scene with human actors. To achieve this goal, all fight sequences were choreographed and motion-captured on a stage in Los Angeles long before principal photography. Then, the CG characters created from those sessions were placed in virtual environments that matched the actual Detroit locations, for use within the Simul-Cam system made famous on Avatar. This process enabled Levy and director of photography Mauro Fiore to “see” fighting robots on the Simul-Cam monitor during principal photography in Detroit, and follow the action as they shot each robot fight even though to everyone else on set it appeared they were filming an empty boxing ring. The CG action was always organically framed with camera moves that felt true because they were captured in the moment at real locations. Digital Domain’s collaboration with Giant Studios here takes virtual production to a whole new level.
MORAL LESSONS
Real Steel is more than the action and drama and it provides us with valuable lessons on fatherhood and manhood.In this movie I have learned a moral lesson and that are:
The real failure of a father is not when he makes a mistake but when he stops fighting for the relationship.
Quality time is Quantity time. The father and son bonded not because they had a 5 minute uninterrupted time. They bonded when they stayed and lived together. You can’t expect a relationship to grow if there is no quantity time. The dad and the son learned to love each other when they spend time together. LOVE is spelled as TIME.
Fathers, spend time with your kids. Tuck them to bed. Read books with them. Bring them out on dates. We only have a small window of opportunity to impart to our kids. Men are Mentors. Whether we like it or not, we are teachers and mentors. Like father, like son we would usually hear from our dad’s friend. Your life is your curriculum. The movie depicted a lot of scene where the son was just like his father and his father was surprised to see himself in his son. Lessons in manhood are more caught than taught.
REACTION
We were viewing a movie called Real Steel. Real Steel is super cool and it is also cool because they have robots that you can control. The character’s names are noisy boy and Max. This movie was about people and robots. People were creating robots and they can control it. They fight in a cage, outside or in a house. They can create robots to fight and Noisy boy didn’t have any money so he and Max went to the junk yard. I like this movie because I like robots and that why this movie is called Real Steel. I recommend this movie because you can watch it with your family because if your family likes robots you can watch it. And you can relate the story of the movie to your life.
REAL STEEL
(Shawn Levy)
MAIN CHARACTERS: * * Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton * Dakota Goyo as Max Kenton * Evangeline Lilly as Bailey Tallet * Anthony Mackie as Finn * Olga Fonda as Farra Lemkova * Karl Yune as Tak Mashido * Kevin Durand as Ricky * Hope Davis as Debra * James Rebhorn as Marvin
SUMMARY
Real Steal takes place in the near-future, where robots have taken the place of humans in the sport of boxing. Charlie Kenton is a former fighter who now makes a living controlling these robots in freelance matches all across America. After losing yet another match and another robot, Charlie needs cash to buy a new robot, so that he can win enough money to pay off his increasingly violent creditors. Charlie receives a court summons forcing him to travel to New York to …show more content…
release custody of his 11 year-old-son Max by a former girl-friend, who he has never met, to her rich sister and husband. Seeing a way of financing his next robot, Charlie cons fifty grand out of the husband before signing over the boy. However, before they take custody of Max, Charlie must take care of Max for the summer, while the rich couple vacation in Europe.
Charlie uses his money to buy a former “champ” robot and is about to leave Max behind, but the stubborn Max insists on coming along to the fight. Charlie gets a headline fight, but his cockiness in the bout costs him both the robot and a beating at the hands of his creditors. Looking to steal spare parts to fix his robot, Charlie and Max break into a junk yard and accidentally stumble on an abandoned sparing robot, which Max insists on bringing back with them to repair. With the help of Charlie’s girlfriend Bailey, they repair the old sparing robot, which Max dubs Atom. While Charlie is off trying to find the parts to fix his damaged champion robot, Max uses the vocal command parts from it to control Atom. Soon, Max has Atom up and running and discovers that Atom has a shadow program built into it that allows it to mimic the moves of its controller. Max insists that Charlie enter Atom in a fight, so Charlie reluctantly allows Max a local bout and much to his surprise, Atom and Charlie win the match. Soon, Max and Charlie are wining fights all around the country, eventually earning a chance at the professional circuit and a match with the champ Zeus!
Real Steel is not even remotely believable as science fiction, because the near future depicted in the film looks identical to our present; only with the addition of giant fighting robots. While much of the film is dedicated to demonstrating the physical dynamics of the robots and how their controllers are partnered with them, there is no consistency in the level of technology that is used even at the professional level.
What the film attempts to do is fill the void of futuristic world building with emotional gravitas.
We’re supposed to care enough about the father and son relationship, so that we’ll not only overlook the technological incongruities, but the fabricated plot furthering devices as well. That is the major problem I had with Real Steel: I did not like either Charlie or Max as characters and I never once believed in the contrivance of their bonding in the film. Part of the problem with Charlie’s character is that for most of the first third of the film, Charlie is portrayed as a self-centered, irresponsible lummox, who’s only goal in life seems to be to get another robot to enter into a fight. He sells off his own child to pay for a robot and later we’re supposed to shrug this off with a laugh after Charlie and Max suddenly hit it off upon finding a common goal with Max robot Atom. Max is also extremely unlikeable; being nearly as self-centered and pig-headed as his estranged father! Why we’re supposed to suddenly like these two characters just because they both share the same selfish ambitions to become successful at robot fighting is beyond
me.
The only real positive to Real Steel is the fighting robot sequences. The combination of animatronics and digital animation is nearly flawless. Unfortunately, the choreography of the fights themselves was not very inventive, so a lot of the work that went into making the robots realistic looking was wasted on unimaginative matches.
Real Steel should have been at the very least a light-hearted sci-fi action drama. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a pointless exercise in juvenile wish fulfillment and an unsophisticated emotional manipulation machination.
HOW WAS THE MOVIE MADE?
"Real Steel" is an action drama about a former boxer (Hugh Jackman) who, against all odds, gets one last shot at a comeback when he teams up with his estranged son (Dakota Goyo) to build and train the perfect contender for the now hi-tech sport of robot boxing.
While Real Steel is garnering excellent reviews based on its powerful story and engaging characters, it is the visual spectacle of massive robots in the boxing ring that make for some of the movie’s most rousing scenes. Those boxing matches were conceived, planned and executed using an innovative process that gave the filmmakers unprecedented creative freedom and efficiency by taking virtual production out of the studio and bringing it into real-world settings. Director Shawn Levy wanted the boxing matches between eight-foot tall CG robots to feel truly visceral and natural, so he called on Digital Domain and visual effects supervisor Erik Nash to make it so. The team designed a virtual production workflow that allowed Levy to direct CG characters as if they were actually present on set – in the boxing rings where background plates were shot – just like he would shoot any other scene with human actors. To achieve this goal, all fight sequences were choreographed and motion-captured on a stage in Los Angeles long before principal photography. Then, the CG characters created from those sessions were placed in virtual environments that matched the actual Detroit locations, for use within the Simul-Cam system made famous on Avatar. This process enabled Levy and director of photography Mauro Fiore to “see” fighting robots on the Simul-Cam monitor during principal photography in Detroit, and follow the action as they shot each robot fight even though to everyone else on set it appeared they were filming an empty boxing ring. The CG action was always organically framed with camera moves that felt true because they were captured in the moment at real locations. Digital Domain’s collaboration with Giant Studios here takes virtual production to a whole new level.
MORAL LESSONS
Real Steel is more than the action and drama and it provides us with valuable lessons on fatherhood and manhood.In this movie I have learned a moral lesson and that are:
The real failure of a father is not when he makes a mistake but when he stops fighting for the relationship.
Quality time is Quantity time. The father and son bonded not because they had a 5 minute uninterrupted time. They bonded when they stayed and lived together. You can’t expect a relationship to grow if there is no quantity time. The dad and the son learned to love each other when they spend time together. LOVE is spelled as TIME.
Fathers, spend time with your kids. Tuck them to bed. Read books with them. Bring them out on dates. We only have a small window of opportunity to impart to our kids. Men are Mentors. Whether we like it or not, we are teachers and mentors. Like father, like son we would usually hear from our dad’s friend. Your life is your curriculum. The movie depicted a lot of scene where the son was just like his father and his father was surprised to see himself in his son. Lessons in manhood are more caught than taught.
REACTION
We were viewing a movie called Real Steel. Real Steel is super cool and it is also cool because they have robots that you can control. The character’s names are noisy boy and Max. This movie was about people and robots. People were creating robots and they can control it. They fight in a cage, outside or in a house. They can create robots to fight and Noisy boy didn’t have any money so he and Max went to the junk yard. I like this movie because I like robots and that why this movie is called Real Steel. I recommend this movie because you can watch it with your family because if your family likes robots you can watch it. And you can relate the story of the movie to your life.