Real Steel (2011)

Most people think so. 83% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics scored it lower at 58%, but audiences disagreed.

Charlie Kenton is a washed-up fighter who retired from the ring when robots took over the sport. After his robot is trashed, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son to rebuild and train an unlikely contender. Wikipedia ↗

Real Steel is a 2011 American science fiction sports drama directed by Shawn Levy. Hugh Jackman stars as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up former boxer in a near-future world where human boxing has been replaced by robot boxing. Deep in debt and estranged from his 11-year-old son Max, played by Dakota Goyo, Charlie reluctantly takes custody of the boy and together they discover Atom, a scrapped sparring robot in a junkyard that Max believes can become a contender.

As they train Atom and fight their way through the underground robot boxing circuit, father and son rebuild their relationship while the unlikely underdog robot advances toward a championship match against the undefeated champion Zeus. Real Steel was essentially Rocky with robots, and it executed that formula with surprising emotional effectiveness. Hugh Jackman brought genuine warmth to the deadbeat-father-seeking-redemption arc, and Dakota Goyo's enthusiastic performance as Max gave the film its heart.

The robot boxing sequences, combining practical animatronic robots with CGI enhancement, were viscerally exciting. Steven Spielberg served as executive producer. Real Steel earned $299 million worldwide on a $110 million budget.