Real Steel is rougher and tougher than the usual kid-oriented holiday film, yet still manages to be fun and family friendly, and something most grown-ups will enjoy of their own accord.

Set in the near future, the world of robot boxing has taken over from human boxing to become a popular and big dollar industry. Retired boxer Charlie Kenton (the delightful Hugh Jackman) has traded in his gloves and ekes out a living touring the carnival circuit with his fighting robot. Charlie has a less than charming combination of a big ego, big mouth and a gambling problem, and these three things constantly land him in trouble. When his 8 year old son Max comes into his care, he isn’t interested in the kid. Max is a clever, feisty boy with a love of robot boxing, and Charlie grudgingly takes him along to cash-in-hand fights in the seedy ‘bot boxing underworld (think Fight Club, but with robots.) When Max finds an old, discarded sparring robot, cleans him up, and puts him in to fight, the two see a change in their fortunes that causes a huge change in their relationship. Yes, it’s a kid movie, so the father-son bonding plot line is big and obvious, but the very contemporary role-reversal of Max being the determined, sensible one, and Charlie being the immature hothead shakes things up a bit. There are moments of sentimentality, but they are balanced out by lots of fun bickering and attitude from both Max and his dad.

13 year old Dakota Goyo is excellent as Max; he is very authentic as a smart-alec kid looking for someone to look up to, and strikes a good balance between brat and sweet. Hugh Jackman has a wonderful dynamic with his young co-star, and plays Charlie as a jerk who become more sympathetic as the film progresses. He also looks the part- rough and rumpled- but still carries off a kind of charm that will keep his fans happy. Evangeline Lilly is nice as Bailey Tallet, the daughter of Charlie’s former boxing trainer. She’s clearly sweet on Charlie, and brings real enthusiasm to the final fight scenes. Ultimately she’s mostly a love interest for Charlie and substitute mom for Max, but as Charlie’s indispensable techie, who patches up his robot’s computer systems, she gets to show some smarts.

There are no big surprises in the story, but the pace is well handled and there are a few good, tense moments. Apart from one somewhat disturbing scene early on, where a ‘bot fights a bull (don’t worry, no animals were harmed making the film, and the bull well-and-truly comes out on top) the film is fun and likable. The special effects are fantastic, with the animatronic robots blending seamlessly with the MOCAP and CGI. The robot fighting scenes are exciting, noisy, fast and cringe-inducing (contenders are often ripped apart and left in a pool of their own purple hydraulic fluid. Ouch!)

The visual design of the robots is very, very cool. Noisy Boy, one of Charlie’s early contenders is a super-sleek Japanese machine that looks like something out of Manga; Atom, the hero robot is clunky and tough with a friendly face, and despite being a machine he manages to have a lot of personality; Zeus the movie’s (robot) villain looks like a tricked-out mechanical version of the Xenomorph from Alien, and is almost as fearsome. The finale fight is classic sports movie montage- exciting and fun with a bittersweet result that rings true but doesn’t let down the story.

Real Steel is a terrific holiday movie, and families will love it. I probably wouldn’t recommend it for children under the age of 7, as the noise and cartoon-violence of the fight scenes might be a little overwhelming, and the not-action scenes are also abundant. Adults will get a kick out of the relationships between the humans, and will enjoy the over-the top-fights. You’ll wish there really was a World Robot Boxing league.

And you’ll also want your own pet giant robot to dance with.

Real Steel is available on Bluray and DVD from 28th March 2012.