Real Steel - Couldn't help but like this (and I didn't mean to)  

When I saw the trailer to `Real Steel' I have to confess to being more than a little excited. Sadly, I have long since realised that I like `low-brow' films and the concept of big robots smacking seven shades of sparkplugs out of each other while under the watchful eye of Wolverine, did kind of appeal to me (especially in the light of the disaster that was the Transformers money-spinning bandwagon).

Therefore I waited in trepidation for this film to be realised. Then, when it finally came out, critics started using words like `heart' and `father/son bonding' when talking about it. That was the point when my expectations severely lowered. I didn't want to watch some sort of coming-of-age drama. I wanted to see droids' pro-wrestling or whatever it should have been.

And so I ended up not really caring when or where I finally got round to seeing Real Steel.

Amazingly, it contains both. There was plenty of bot on bot smackdown and a healthy dose of human-interest as Wolverine (oh, all right, Hugh Jackman) learns to love and look after his son of eleven years who he's only properly met (due to the boy's mother dying unexpectedly).

Okay, so my only gripe is that Real Steel is a little long. Personally, I would have trimmed down the human side and focused on droids stomping on each other from a great height. But, at no time did I want to fast forward the human stars.

Stephen Spielberg is among the behind-the-scenes people. I just wonder why he never bothered to make Transformers like this?

Don't expect wall-to-wall action. Don't expect wall-to-wall sentiment. It actually splits the two quite well. Hopefully they'll make a sequel where Wolverine gives his droid some claws. Now that'll be worth the price of a cinema ticket any day!

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that