charlytully Review of Real Steel

Real Steel (2011)

Michigan Gov. Snyder plans new site for REAL STEEL 3

[10/10 · 27 November 2011]

It's nice to be able to write about a wonderful family movie for once. Perhaps the best dance movie since DANCES WITH WOLVES, this flick easily could be subtitled A BOY AND HIS ROBOT to perhaps better reflect the dance-inspired bond between Max Kenton (Dakota Goyo) and his bot, Adam. More believable than the original ROCKY (particularly because Adam is more expressive than Sylvester Stallone ever was), REAL STEEL offers the added bonus of featuring loads of authentically gritty Michigan locations. (Though most of the action is set in Texas, that state was considered too Disneyland to accurately reflect the darker elements of the REAL STEEL story.) As refreshing as it is to not see Toronto suburbs once again posing a pale imitation of America, Michigan's newbie Gov. Snyder and his legislative cohorts have an even BETTER location planned for REAL STEEL 3 (most likely a 2017 release, depending upon when X-MEN 13 is shot). Snyder has eliminated 75% of Michigan's mine inspectors, while encouraging a ten-fold expansion in mining. The tentative REAL STEEL 3 site will be near Big Bay in the state's Upper Peninsula. Snyder feels Eagle Mine--America's first-ever large-scale nickel mine--will far outdo the treeless nickel-mining region around Sudbury, ON as the perfect place for shooting the distopian and apocalyptic films of the future. Tunneling just under the famous Salmon Trout River near the shores of Lake Superior, Eagle Mine will have the potential to easily outdo Love Canal and Three Mile Island in becoming synonymous with large-scale environmental disaster. By 2016 the ghost forests, abandoned tourist towns, decaying hunting lodges, and thick pall of never-sunlit smelter smoke will save the producers of REAL STEEL 3 95% of the CGI budget for their 2011 offering. If AVATAR 3 takes its expected dark turn, or if they make another Mad Max sequel, Michigan Gov. Snyder has insured that Hollywood will have no need whatsoever for costly digital matte painters to portray Armageddon.