The first image from Shawn Levy’s robot boxing movie Real Steel has arrived it’s much more promising than I anticipated. Perhaps I joked about this being a film in which Hugh Jackman plays Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots so many times that that’s kind of what I was expecting to see. Clearly that’s not the case.

First off, this robot battle isn’t a tabletop activity; these things are huge. They’re also not as rickety as I imaged. They appear to be very high tech with seamless finishing, flexible joints and even some decorative lights. On top of that, the machine in this image has a name, Noisy Boy. But he isn’t Jackman’s top fighter in the film. That title goes to Atom, a hunk of junk Jackman and his son stumble upon and attempt to groom into a World Robot Boxing league champion.

You know what’s truly outstanding about this robot? It’s real. Yes, motion-capture animation is used when the bots hit the ring, but 19 real animatronic machines were built to use during live-action scenes. Levy explained, “There are some things only visual effects can pull off.” He added, “But when you give an actor a real thing, in this case a real 8-foot-tall machine, to interact with and do dialogue opposite, you get a more grounded reality to the performance.”

Real Steel will hit theaters on November 18th, 2011.

By Perri Nemiroff (via USA Today)

Real Steel

By Perri Nemiroff

Film producer and director best known for her work in movies such as FaceTime, Trevor, and The Professor. She has worked as an online movie blogger and reporter for sites such as CinemaBlend.com, ComingSoon.net, Shockya, and MTV's Movies Blog.

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