Charlie Kenton - former pro boxer, that gave the #2 contender (for the world championship) a run for his money - has evolved with the sport of boxing and is fighting with any robots he can find, anywhere he can find them in hopes of making money to pay off debts and just keep his financial nose above water.
Charlie has his estranged 11 year old son (Max) suddenly dumped on him, after he finds out that Max's mother has suddenly passed on. Reluctantly he takes in Max, but is coerced by Max into letting him tag along on in the underground robot boxing circuit.
The Kenton's stumble upon a sparring bot that Charlie has no faith in, but Max believes that this new find "Atom" has something special and they quickly put Atom to work when they realize Atom can take a hit and dish it out too.
The element of a child really made this movie very far-fetched, as if the robots didn't already. What could have been a very good action-drama ended up being a kiddi-fied action-drama that might end up turning some off. (Max teaches "Atom" hip-hop dancing. This really bugged me.) For, instance allowing a child into an underground boxing circuit, where no parent or really any adult with true concern for the well-being of a child to go to... essentially a 21 and up, style bar-like environment.
Also, where Max initially finds Atom, he has claimed Atom as his own and in his 11 year old mind, he's entitled to call the shots... he's basically taken on the role of the manager and booking agent while his dad just backs down at Max's "evil eye" when Max's "authority" in the matter is challenged.
When I came to accept the utter ridiculousness of this reality, I decided to check my brain at the door and just enjoy a boxing movie, despite an 11 year was calling the shots. It's like accepting the fact that in a super hero movie you excuse physics and all reality in Captain America when Steve Rogers is given a syrum and imaginary radiation treatment to make him nearly 2 feet taller, and have insta-muscles, super strength and speed, despite the reality that it never could happen.
The MPAA would have given this movie a PG rating, but Max was scripted to have a head-strong personality that gives him the confidence to defy his father, make bets with bookies, up the anti on said bets and call the bluff of these bookies. With such a head strong personality comes a mouth that isn't afraid to use profanity, which is where a lot of the PG-13 rating is rooted in.
The MPAA also says the rating came from violence and intense action, but all the Rocky movies (except Rocky 5) got a PG. Charlie gets a beat down, in a night scene, from people he owes money to, so the darkness doesn't really give you a clear image as to how violent of a scene it is. The boxing matches clearly have more violence in them, but because Charlie's beat down is humans fighting, the realistic factor is probably what also contributed to the 13 rating and not the boxing matches.
I want to give this movie 3/4 stars, but things that detracted from the drama of the movie, like hip-hop dancing and Max's ridiculously overbearing personality are going to cause me to give this a 2.75/4 stars.
Another reason I can't justify 3/4 stars is because it is too much like Rocky 1 & 4. And because of that, I was really hoping for the drama that came from those 2 movies, but they took this movie in the direction of the relationship between father and son and let that be driving force behind the movie, and not the drama I was hoping to get that I got from the Rocky's.
The action is definitely there, but the Max character continually overshadows his father - that I wanted to care for - but he was too much of a wuss to put his foot down as his father and call the shots. It's a good movie, just a little too much Max.
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