I'm putting this in Off Topic since DiF hasn't done an episode on Real Steel...

First of all, I (kinda?) liked the movie and the visuals were very impressive.
However, I'm a little confused about some things...(spoilers to follow)...

Early on it's implied that Atom has some kind emotions, that he shares some kind of connection with Max.
On a thematic level I get it, but he's just a giant hunk of metal. The personification of Atom continues right up until the climax when the ring announcers are saying he must be "programmed with the will to go on".

No other bot is treated this way throughout the film, why would anyone in this world give two shits about these robots? I think this world would've been much more like what was see at the Flesh Fairs in A.I.
Furthermore, the bots in the film (Atom included) are incredibly dumb. They have little to no A.I. all of their actions are performed live by an operator. The character of Tak states that Zues is constantly analyzing the fight and re-writing his code. That's not was we see at all in the film.

Furthermore, HOW is Atom able to survive? He's a Gen2, if you put up a Model T and a current Ferrari in a race, the Model T isn't going to win because it's an outdated & inferior model. For argument's sake, lets say you put My Mother the Car up against the Ferrari, no matter how much she WANTS to win she physically doesn't have the necessary equipment to get the job done.

Controlling Atom via voice commands seems to be a very inefficient way to operate a robot, and why does Hugh Jackman perform the actions he's calling out - even when the robot is clearly in voice activation mode instead of shadow mode? I guess it's supposed to be because he was a boxer and is therefore incapable of saying the word uppercut without performing said action...

What I would've liked to have seen was something like THIS:

Charlie was a human boxer, he was injured & retired. He never fought robots.
Max starts off as the same video game playing punk. They get Atom ...somehow...
Max doesn't know boxing. Charlie doesn't can't work the controls well.
Charlie trains Max, and Max operates the robot because his physical size doesn't matter when he's controlling a robot.

I thought all of the operators in the film were strange. Rednecks & punks and gangsters, they all seem like the kind of people you'd find in any underground fight club -- but this isn't fight club. Someone has to program these things. Someone has to build them & repair them.  In my opinion they participants should've looked more like the types of people you'd see building battle bots. If fact, it's shameful that the crew of Mythbusters were not invited in for a cameo. I'd love to have seen Grant w/ old age makeup playing himself in 20 years.

Okay, rant off, I look forward to discussing this with anyone bored enough to respond