I have to admit that I wasn’t too excited about “Real Steel” when I saw the trailer. Sure, the special effects look great, and Hugh Jackman is an excellent actor. Also, the “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots” storyline had some appeal. But it looked like another typical crowd pleaser put together just because we now have CGI. It just wasn’t one of the new films of 2011 that I wanted to see.

But the movie delivers. It gives you exactly what you would expect, and it does it fairly well. That’s what we really want from movies, except for those rare instances where we don’t mind being surprised by a great film. Audiences are naturally responding, thus the success at the box office. Go see it at a good theater like the Leicester Square cinema.