Which do you prefer, a Title Champ or People's Champ?
Last Friday night I was invited to watch the movie Real Steel by my audit friends. I had some reservations whether to join the Friday Night Movie because I don’t like the idea of fighting robots and controlled like in video games. Though I have watched a portion of the trailer still I don’t buy the story (Feeling ko kasi pambata ang movie kasi Rated G pa). But after one hell of a hectic week I seek for time to relax so I decided to join the group.
If there is a saying that don’t judge the book by its cover, then for movies, I could say don’t judge the movie by its… hmmm trailer. Movie trailer is a like marketing tool wherein good cut and paste of scenes might result to enticement to see the whole movie. It creates curiosity to see the movie (pero bat ganun pag napanood mo eh trailer ng Tagalog movie parang alam mo na yung buong story). I proved it right when I finally watched the movie. Real Steel is actually the Real Deal!
I will try my best not to be a spoiler for the benefit of those who haven’t seen yet the movie (sus spoiler pa rin). The setting of the story is a little bit futuristic extending our sight to year 2020 where humans are replaced by robots in boxing fights. The story revolves around Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), a former boxer who once in his career had strings of winning moments but ended his career on a sour note. Charlie was a living debt after getting hooked to gambling on robot fights. His friend, Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly), the owner of Tallet’s Gym and daughter of his former coach is his only ally in his roller-coaster life. His life was changed when his son Max (Dakota Goyo) came in to picture.
Definitely I enjoyed the movie. The storyline is easy to grasp. The plot is very family-oriented and the moral of the story is truly inspiring. I guess Pinoys, who aside from being basketball crazy followers, are also typical boxing fanatics will definitely relate to the movie. I could say the movie was partially inspired (wala hula ko lang) by the growing drama of the much anticipated fight between Pacman and Mayweather, the typical David versus Goliath scenario. The boxing side is just the half of the movie, the other half tells about a peculiar kind of father-son relationship.
Living out the Lost Dream
How many of us became victims of lost dreams? No matter how big or small the dreams we lost, a feeling of incompleteness deep inside our heart remains. Call it unfinished business or a story with no end. As much as we want a Cinderella type of story in our own endeavor, reality dictates that happy ending will never be served on us on a silver platter. For Charlie’s story his life as a boxer needs a closure. He is on denial that his hey days are over. He tries to meet both ends by accepting casual underground fights. Not only that he is a hard-lucked bastard he is also a lousy gambler. He is lost and he knows deep inside in his heart he is incomplete.
One of the scenes in the movie I like best is when the little Max and Charlie engaged to an agreement. Max agreed to dance (magaling ang moves ng bata kulang na lang magteach me how to dougie) before the fight while Charlie will do the boxing. The agreement is actually the avenue for Charlie to go back to his boxing ways. The once faded dream of Charlie was relived and he was back to his fighting mode. I think this movie is the Rocky version of Robot Boxing!
And here’s something I learned from the movie. Sometimes dead or lost dreams can be revived by a simple inspiration. Inspiration might come from a certain event of our life or from someone we love. Of course most of the time inspiration comes from the person we love, giving us an invigorating drive to accomplish our dreams. For Charlie, it was through his son Max that opens the door for another chance to fight in the big stream.
The movie reminded us that it only takes a matter of time for us to get another chance to fulfill our dream. Once the opportunity knocks on our door (tao po…), there should be no reason for us not opening the door. The opportunity to fulfill our dream or to put closure to our unfinished business in life might be too hard to find nowadays but for sure it will come.
Fight For Me
Another interesting part of the story is how Charlie and Max took turn in throwing jabs of witty lines. The chemistry of the two is remarkable, both compliments each other. One of the scenes that stick in my memory is when Max was about to be taken by his aunt and uncle away from Charlie. Max only wanted one thing from his father and that is for his father to fight for him.
It actually feels good if you fight and win what you want. However fighting for someone takes a lot of guts. In all honestly, I am not a gutsy person. However through this movie I somewhat learned that it needs to be gutsy sometimes. And the secret to fight for someone lies on watching this movies (boy I need to be paid advertising this movie). In my observation fighting for our special someone starts by being honest to someone you want to fight for. Expressing in an impromptu what you feel both good and bad as well as the admission of guilt and shortcoming might also help.
I once tried fighting for someone but I failed. Maybe back then I lack the killer instinct to finish a good round of fight. Or maybe my inexperience and lack of ample amount of effort resulted to unsavory result. But it was already in the past and just like the old ways, I charged it to experience (sabi mo lang yun, bitter ka lang). Watching Real Steel reminded me both the feeling of urgency to fight for someone but at the same time made me think and ask, “Can I do it?”
Only my guts can answer.
After leaving the theatre house feeling relaxed, I thank God for pushing me to join my audit friend for a movie night. Indeed lessons might come in mysterious ways (di ba love yun) and last Friday night it came from Real Steel.
Indeed Real Steel is a real deal!