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
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