I had the same apprehensions going to “Real Steel” that most people probably will. Walking in the theater I could not help thinking, “A movie about boxing robots? Really?”

Really.

“Real Steel” grabs you from the start. In a near future where human controlled robots have replaced people in the sport of boxing, Hugh Jackman plays down-on-his luck former flesh-and-blood boxer turned robot-boxer Charlie. Charlie learns his ex-girlfriend is dead and gains custody of his son, but their lucks could change when Max (Charlie’s son) finds an old robot in a junkyard and the two begin to refurbish it.

Thanks to great directing, a good screenplay, and a few good performances, “Real Steel” shines. Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo are a perfect father-son combination and you begin to really care about them both. The movie is both light-hearted fun and heavy emotion and redemption at the same time. That’s right: emotion. Emotion in a movie about fighting machines. It seems impossible, but this movie is fantastic. Occasionally, maybe even rarely, you see a movie that is so well put together that you can really delve into it and get a level of escape that most movies advertise but few deliver on. I can tell you “Real Steel” delivers. I have never seen a machine–and its been a long time since I’ve seen a movie–with such heart.