The Twilight Zone episode Steel inspired Hugh Jackman’s Real Steel

Even though he was working from a script by the acclaimed Dan Gilroy (“Nightcrawler”) and Jeremy Leven (“The Notebook”), Levy’s “Real Steel” felt like a CG-heavy, family-friendly programmer’s take on the “Night at the Museum” blockbuster; so to Matheson admirers and “The Twilight Zone” fans, it seemed eminently skippable. But while the narrative’s form is more like a “Paper Moon” mash-up, the heart of Matheson’s story is nestled in the machinery that appeals to studios.

Jackman’s Charlie Kenton is, like Marvin’s Kelly, a former boxer working on the fringes of the robot fighting circuit with inferior fighters. But since this is a four-quadrant movie, Charlie has to have a lot more skin in the game, namely his son Max (Dakota Goyo), whose mother has just died and whom he hasn’t seen since he was born. When they discover a discarded robot named Atom with a built-in “shadow function,” which allows Charlie to imbue him with his boxing intelligence, they unwittingly find themselves managing a formidable underdog.

Thanks to the extraordinary chemistry between Jackman and Evangeline Lily, top-notch visual effects and a thrilling sports movie story told with unwavering conviction, “Real Steel” is a smash hit (it remains the only good film that Levy directed). I don’t know why it wasn’t a hit in theaters ($300 million in worldwide revenue on a budget of $110 million isn’t optimal), but it has since caught on via streaming . I’d happily recommend it to parents who are looking for something they can watch with their kids without wincing, and I’d love to watch it again now. It is very easy to review.

Alas, this reinterpretation of Matheson’s central concept has not aged well. In fact, “Real Steel” now feels a bit like a betrayal of its source material.