Despite making a modest impact on release, it’s now clear that Hugh Jackman’s Real Steel is not just a better movie than many gave it credit for, but also proves where the much more successful Transformers series has gone wrong. Although currently unavailable on the US version of the site, Real Steel has found an international audience on Netflix – proving to be the eighth-most popular movie around the world between June 3 and June 9, 2024. This performance, 13 years on from its release, is both slightly surprising and a timely reminder of the movie’s qualities.

Superficially, there are many similarities between Real Steel and the Transformers movies. Most obviously, both revolve around giant robots fighting each other. However, while the metallic protagonists seem very alike, there is arguably more that divides the two properties than unites them. Whereas Transformers‘ robots are anthropomorphic aliens, Real Steel‘s bots are human-made fighters, created only for entertainment. While this might suggest that Transformers is a more relatable series, the truth is much more complex – revealing Real Steel‘s relative successes in the process.

Real Steel Combines Strong Human Characters With Robot Action

It Avoids Transformers’ Biggest Mistake

As the Transformers series developed, many of the movies – particularly those under the direction of Michael Bay – emphasized the robots rather than the humans at the heart of the story. Although the most critically successful entries, such as Bumblebee and the original Transformers, made a point of creating relatable and empathetic human characters before unleashing robot carnage, movies like Revenge of the Fallen and Age of Extinction eschewed characterization in favor of spectacle. Although it had nowhere near the level of financial success, Real Steel highlights the benefits of a different approach.

Although the thrilling prospect of fighting robots gives Real Steel its own impressive action sequences, the movie’s real strength comes from its human characters. Hugh Jackman’s Charlie is arguably more relatable than anyone in the Transformers franchise, combining the timely stories of an everyman made obsolete by the advance of technology with a father struggling to live up to his own idea of manhood. Compared to the portrayal of equivalent characters in the Transformers series, like Mark Whalberg’s Cade Yeager, Real Steel presents a compelling and complex portrait that makes the action even more meaningful.

Real Steel Understands That Emotional Depth Is The Key To Success

It’s Not Enough To Present Explosive Action Scenes

Alongside crafting compelling human characters for audiences to relate to, Real Steel takes deliberate steps to ensure that their stories are emotionally resonant. Charlie’s complicated relationship with his son, for example, forms the heart of the story, with the robots augmenting rather than usurping this narrative. Although the final fight between Atom and Zeus takes center stage during the film’s finale, the scene is much more affecting because of well-established dynamics between all the key characters, with the showdown facilitating a triumphant catharsis even as Atom loses.

This is in stark contrast to the approach of the weaker Transformers movies. Entries like Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon, in particular, offer little in the way of emotional impact since the human characters are far too thinly drawn to feel fully-rounded and realized. Likewise, the Transformers themselves are often reduced to the role of comic relief, with their chaotic battles requiring little emotional investment from the audience.

What’s perhaps most frustrating, when assessing the Transformers series as a whole, is that some movies have recognized the need for the kind of emotional depth that Real Steel exemplifies. Bumblebee, for example, blended the need for impressive action sequences with emotional intelligence – introducing Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie as a character struggling to process her father’s death. It’s no coincidence that Bumblebee became the highest-rated Transformers movie after following this approach.

Real Steel Made Its Robots Sympathetic With No Dialog

It Was A Classic Case Of Less Is More

One of the major criticisms leveled at the Transformers movies has been the characterization of its robots. As the series developed, the robots were increasingly employed as comic relief – sometimes extremely questionably – with excessive dialog doing little to endear them to the viewer. In the case of Optimus Prime, his role was often reduced to explaining the story to audiences instead of developing his character with relationship changes and genuine growth.

Real Steel, by contrast, understood that robot characters don’t need to explain themselves in order for an audience to empathize with them. Much as Pixar’s Wall-e avoided dialog, Real Steel‘s robots are much more subtle. For instance, it’s only through subtle movements and sly acknowledgments that it’s acknowledged that Atom may be sentient, with his silence only becoming more powerful as he goes through the trials of combat. While Transformers‘ dialog was often questionable for all its characters, Real Steel makes it clear that robots don’t need to speak in order to engender sympathy.

Again, there is already an example of this in the Transformers franchise. Although he is at an advantage thanks to the frequency of his appearances, Bumblebee is by far and away the most relatable Transformers robot, all without speaking – at least, in a traditional sense. This approach with Bumblebee not only makes it more difficult for him to be tarnished with some of the series’ more puerile gags, but it also means that he doesn’t distract from the human characters’ emotions, becoming an avatar for their feelings, rather than a brash personality in his own right – a winning combination, as further proven by Bumblebee‘s success.

Transformers Prioritized Spectacle Over Story

It’s The Biggest Difference Between The Two Giant Robot Sagas

While the contrast between Transformers and Real Steel from an emotional perspective is stark, the biggest lesson that the Hugh Jackman sci-fi teaches is that spectacle means nothing unless the story is engaging. Instead of moving speedily between robot fights, Real Steel punctuates the action with scenes that prioritize character development. Compared to Transformers, the narrative is actually relatively sedate, with nowhere near the same level of globe-trotting, complex MacGuffins, or world-ending stakes. And yet, despite the story feeling smaller, Real Steel‘s action is actually much easier to relate to.

Real Steel is by no means a perfect movie. As pointed out by many critics, the film has too many similarities with underdog sports dramas to be considered a particularly innovative addition to the genre. However, as a template for making a film about fighting robots both entertaining and engaging, Real Steel provides several lessons for Transformers to learn.