When Jake saw the previews for Real Steel, he told me he really wanted to see it because it had giant robots in it. What little boy doesn’t love giant robots? I’m a grown woman, and I think they’re pretty darn cool! Although if I’m being perfectly honest, it wasn’t exactly the robots that caught my attention in the previews, it was Hugh Jackman.  We didn’t have a chance to see it in the theaters, so we had to wait until my Real Steel Blu-Ray/DVD review copy came to see if it lived up to all the hype I was seeing on the blogosphere about it.

As far as I’m concerned, the movie more than lived up to the hype. I wasn’t sure what to expect beyond “robots fight each other while a father gets to know his estranged son.” The plot line has been done before…well, minus the robots fighting part. In the movie, Charlie (played by Hugh Jackman) is the typical down-on-his-luck absentee father who used to be a pretty good boxer back in the day when humans actually appeared in the ring. Now, he controls robots in the ring, and apparently doesn’t do it very well because all of his keep losing fights and getting all busted up. Max is the 11-year-old son that Charlie never bothered getting to know.

When Max’s mom dies and Charlie is asked to sign over his rights to her sister, Charlie sees an opportunity to make a few bucks. He ends up taking Max for the summer, and the two end up bonding over the robots…sort of. Eventually, they bond over the robots, but for the majority of the movie Charlie is a major contender for “Worst Father of the Year.” The amazing Evangeline Lily(of Lost) plays Bailey, Charlie’s long-time friend/potential romantic interest. While the three make up the main human characters of the movie, the major stars are of course the robots. There are several awesome ones, but Atom is true star of the movie. He’s oddly cute for a giant hunk of metal, with expressive eyes that make you think he somehow knows what is going on around him. Check him out in this “Get to Know Atom” video:

The Real Steel Blu-Ray/DVD combo has loads of great bonus features. My favorite is the bloopers/outtakes, as they are always fun to watch. The “Building the Bots” bonus feature is also really neat. A lot of work went into making the robots as original and impressive as possible. Other features include “Making of Metal Valley,” Sugar Ray Leonard: Cornerman’s Champ, and deleted/extended scenes with commentary.

REAL STEEL Discount Offer

For a limited time, Dreamworks is offering $5 OFF the purchase of the Real Steel 3-disc Combo Pack. Visit SteelGetsReal.com, and click on the offer in the upper right corner of the page. Offer ends 1/29/12.