Entertainment : From the Front Row of the Balcony: \'Real Steel\' is predictable, but fun

In one of the more popular episodes of "The Big Bang Theory," the main brains enter a robot contest with their arch enemy, Kripke, the arrogant and speech-impeded genius.

Their conversation about why they fight robots goes something like this:

Leonard: Barry, we can't fight you tomorrow. Our engineer is incapacitated.
Kripke: What's wong with him?
Koothrappali: He's depressed because he's pathetic and creepy and can't get girls.
Kripke: We're all pathetic and cweepy and can't get giwels. That's why we fight wobots.

I saw a rerun of this episode not long before the announcement that "Real Steel" was coming to the Palace." I wondered if it was an attempt to show us that robot-fighters can, indeed, get the girl.

The story

Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is not creepy, but he is quite pathetic and can't get (or at least keep) girls. We meet Charlie, a washed-out boxer, as he is driving to a county fair to fight robots. The movie is set in the future, but we are not told what year, other than its sometime after 2021. The only change, however, that we can see in technology is more advanced fighting robots. Charlie drives a very old looking International Harvester truck (Grandpa Paul had an old IH pickup when I was a kid) with a knob on the steering wheel and solar panels on the roof.

The robots are nearly human in their movements; their owners control them with video game-like controllers (or voice commands).

Charlie is at the bottom of his game, in debt, looking for a robot he can use to make some money. But he finds out that the mother of his 11-year-old son Max (played very well by Dakota Goyo, a Canadian-born actor who has been in many TV shows for years) has died.

His sister-in-law wants custody of the boy, so Charlie makes a deal with his rich brother-in-law: He will sign over the boy to them in exchange for $100,000 -- after spending the summer with his son, whom he has not had contact with for a decade or so.

Max is determined to go with his dad on his robot-fighting journey. They find Atom, an old robot, which Max decides to repair and teach to fight.

Along the way, Charlie has to deal with his old debts, his relationship with his on-and-off girlfriend, Bailey (who is the daughter of the man who taught him how to box, and is still trying to run his gym), and the fact that he sold his son to his sister-in-law.

The ultimate goal is to earn a match with Zeus, the most modern, high-tech fighting robot and the current champion of the robot fighting organization.

Why you should go

I don’t think the producers intended this, but "Real Steel" is paints a very clear picture that offers a warning about what could happen if America continues to advance technologically, while maintaining its cultural decline. Dakota Goyo could become one of our next child stars. The robots obviously required a lot of creative technology; it's fun to watch. Atom, the star robot, can communicate with his eyes an array of human emotions; that takes some work on the part of the creative team.

What you should know before you go

I expected "Real Steel" to be real predictable. It is probably the most predictable movie since "Million Dollar Baby." But then again, if you are going to see a movie about rednecks watching robot fights instead of monster truck rallies, WWF wrestling, or combine demo derbies, you probably aren't looking for something that is intellectually stimulating.
The movie is rated PG-13 because of some violence, "intense action" (are we really concerned about the impact of machines beating up each other on our children?) and language.

It's taboo for reviewers to tell you how a movie ends, but this time I can't tell you. I had to leave for an important date with the worlds two most beautiful blonds with about 15 minute left. I can only guess how "Real Steel" ended (and I have a pretty detailed idea).

But the movie is good enough to make me want to see the end.

Even though less than 60 percent of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes liked the movie (mostly because of the reasons I listed above), more than 80 percent of the audience gave it a "Fresh" rating.

The Palace is closed Tuesday, but you still can see it Wednesday or Thursday evenings; otherwise you will, like me, have to wait until it comes out on Netflix to see if Atom can defeat Zeus, and how this championship match will affect the father and his son.