Real Steel/Headscratchers

• Although the Shadow Mode jog where Atom bangs into stuff is funny, one has to wonder why the robot doesn't have some sort of proximity sensors built into its body to prevent this, seeing as we already have a similar things in some cars even now.
  • He's not meant to go jogging down the street, he's meant purely to spar in a fighting area where few, if any, obstacles would be present. He's also merely Generation-2, may not have incorporated such things yet.
• Why does Ricky have goons when there are freaking fighting robots? Maybe they cost a bit, but still, it would probably be cheaper in the long run. My best explanation is that he's sadistic.
  • Or it's most likely very illegal to sic robots on a human. "Assault with a Robot" may carry a life in prison term.
• The fact that people seem to think voice controls are better than anything else, or at least more advanced than the Shadow Mode, is patently ridiculous. Think about how long it takes you to say something vs. doing it. Of course the robot also needs to process the words, and even if it's a super-fast process that's still vital milliseconds and processing power that could be put to better use. If the movie portrayed how long interpreting a verbal command actually took, it would resemble a turn-based combat system more than a super-fast action sequence. So basically, if we take the explanation for robot fighting's popularity (harder hits, to the "death", etc.) at face value, and that somehow this phased real boxing out ^[1] the most likely scenarios in real life would be 1) previous "live" boxers would still box, but using a robot to mimic their actions so that they don't get hurt, 2) things work almost exactly like a video game, with a bunch of dedicated nerds programming and upgrading their robots that they then control using some sort of game controller, keyboard or similar combination^[2], 3) robots are programmed so sophisticatedly (and we see hints of this when Atom sits up on his own, and saves Max) that no or very little human input is needed. This is actually the only scenario I think that could make robot fighting overtake real fights, because if it were done correctly they could act and respond much faster than a human boxer. Kind of Matrix uber-Neo level fast. Ignoring that metal is notoriously unwieldy.
  • About the "voice more efficient than shadow mode" thing, I think it has to do with laziness. You're not gonna learn the actual moves and show effort when you can just tell the robot what to do. That's how it is NOW. The less YOU have to do, the more advanced it is.
• Same troper as above, while I suppose it falls under Acceptable Breaks From Reality, the fact that these robots seemingly made of solid metal are so agile kind of annoyed me. (Yes, I know it's the same as all Giant Mecha series, probably far less egregious than the skyscraper-tall bots dancing around and ignoring the Square-Cube Law completely, but somehow the premise seemed like it should have had more plausibility.) Couldn't they have all been made of a super-hard, super-lightweight plastic or futuristic material, or at least been handwaved as "they're made of carbon fibre"? Their heaviness also makes me wonder what the hell has so much power that it can move all their numerous parts at a speed equal to that of a human's, and why Zeus (who being a modern robot, should logically have a more efficient/advanced energy system) ran out of it faster than Atom. Maybe I'm overthinking it, or maybe they just thought Viewers are Morons and didn't bother.
  • Atom is designed to get beaten up, so he's tough and has a long battery. Zeus is designed to knock enemies out near-instantly, so power efficiency is the one thing the designers never had to care about.
• Not a very important thing, but how strong did Tak have to be to smash that screen with a punch, and why didn't he get glass in his hand?
• There should be a trope called "The Future Has Transparent Technology" because it was EVERYWHERE in this film. I really don't see the great advantage of this, other than maybe looking cool. If you think scratches on screens are bad now, imagine if there are two sides of a screen where they could be. Not to mention, presumably everyone can see what you're doing even if they're standing where the "back" of a computer or device is facing.
• The shadow function of Atom seems to go from mimicry to mirroring and back without any command. For example, when Atom is fighting in shadow mode, he seems to mimic Charlie, but when they're between rounds and Atom is getting a pep talk, it's mirroring him (as evidenced when Max interrupts an they both look at him.)
• If old sparring robots are built so tough that the most powerful robot in boxing history can't break one, then they would be prohibited from League fights in the interest of fairness. Any experienced 'bot driver or mechanic would know about their reputation, and would cry "foul" at the idea of taking on a fighter who literally COULDN'T be beaten. But everybody in the film, even the master robot designer, seems utterly convinced that Atom is held together with chewing gum and bent paperclips... even after he's spent weeks absorbing abuse from allegedly superior bots.
  • It's not that he's old, it's that he's a sparring bot. Atom's designed to take a lot of damage, but has very little offensive power. I don't think there's limitations on durability, as Zeus seemed to be equally tough (but with a shorter battery life).

1. ↑ which is just completely ignoring that people like watching other real people, with emotions, and seeing struggle in their expressions etc. not to mention that there would likely be a bunch of boxing "purists"
2. ↑ I'd imagine they'd be elevated over the ring a little because really, the places where they were standing in the movie were shit, it'd be so hard to get a good view of anything. Also, imagine unleashing a combo with a robot IRL, how cool would that be.