4/10
This film saves up everything up for its punchline - and I mean that literally. All plausibility, narrative logic and emotional coherence are sacrificed for the knockout blow at the end - except that since we know it's coming from the start, we are not so much knocked out, as dozing on the canvas.
There was a time when Hugh Jackman was seen as the better-looking successor to Russell Crowe, but somehow it never happened. He's handsome enough, and looks like a nice bloke, but he lacks that magic ingredient that makes a film star. So here he is playing second fiddle to CGI robots and a precocious kid.
His character's name is Charlie, and we are asked to believe that he is a washed-up ex-boxer down on his luck, who has screwed up every opportunity that has come his way. Now that boxing is outlawed, he has his own robot boxer, but somehow he always picks losers. Except that as washed-up losers go, he seems to be in good shape.
On the basis of a couple of empty beer bottles rolling around the floor, he's supposed to be a drunk - but he never drinks, and has the body of a man who spend 4 hours a day pumping iron. He has messed up his love life, except that there's this attractive younger woman with a gym who fixes his robots and has nothing else to do but lie around waiting for him to come back, looking doe-eyed as she does so. He abandoned his son, but 11 year old Max integrates into his life with minimal fuss, and turns out to have the techie skills of someone three times his age. And while Charlie is often broke and owing money, somehow or other plenty of dosh comes his way with minimal effort on his behalf.
The story is two-pronged. On the one hand, it's about a father and son bonding; on the other hand it's about CGI hunks of metal fighting to a background of heavy metal music. Put it another way, it's Transformers meets Rocky meets Field Of Dreams. Charlie gets to relive his greatest punches at the climax of the film, and you won't get much of a surprise to discover that it's David vs Goliath (or Atom - eg Adam - vs Zeus - eg God). There is the occasional pleasure to be had on the way, though I would be hard pushed to give you many examples, but it all goes on for such a long time, is so full of shameless product placement for Dr Peppers, plays too much music throughout and pays so little attention to the important details, that I find it hard to give it anything other than a thumbs down.
It looks as though they're hoping for a rematch/sequel. Retire now, would be my advice.
