When teenage Max McGrath discovers his body can generate the universe's most powerful energy, he must bond with the only being able to contain it - a mysterious techno-organic extraterrestrial named Steel. United as the superhero Max Steel, the two friends must combat an alien menace and unlock the secrets of their past. Written by

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bocchun-43555
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One of the worst super hero movie of 2016. Extremely slow to tell a story, no action (except for the last few mins of the movie), too many annoying flash back. Seem like the director wasn't sure if he wants to make a sci-fi movie, chic flix, or comedy.. it turns out to be a big mess that drag on and on. People walking out in the middle of the movie, if it wasn't for my 11 year old, I would have done the same.. After the movie, my 11 year old even comment how bad the movie was! Here's an example of how slow the movie was.. the first min. of the movie, it also indicate Max has super power, it took about 30 mins of the movie to finally confirm his super power. Then another 40 mins of the movie to talk about nothing much with flash back.. and finally 5 mins of action (fight scene) to beat the bad guy. When you think it's all over.. they spend another 15 mins to put some unnecessary romance and filler to make the movie 92mins long, so that you don't think the movie is being too short.

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bkrauser-81-311064 from United States
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Make no mistake, Max Steel, the Mattel toy property, turned Cartoon Network staple, turned full length movie has become the worst reviewed wide-release film of 2016. After a single weekend, the movie has garnered a staggering Metascore of 26, and a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Those are scores usually reserved for direct to DVD video game adaptations and the occasional Pauly Shore movie. I'll admit with so many metrics stacked up against it, my interest both as a critic and a connoisseur of junk cinema was piqued. I wanted to hate this movie; I came in with the expectation that this movie was a special kind of crappy. But alas it's just the regular kind of crappy.

The plot of Max Steel promises the adventures of a middle-America teenager named Max (played by perennial kids-TV bit-player Ben Winchell) and his alien companion named Steel. Due to Max's seemingly inexplicable ability to conjure energy on a molecular level, Steel acts as a symbiotic techno-parasite consuming it with relative safety. In return, Steel (voiced by Josh Brener) enhances Max's physical abilities and protects him with a laser spewing bio- tech suit. Little does Max know that his new friendship with his alien buddy upsets a certain celestial balance, that holds the future of our world in the hands of a sinister enemy.

The plot promises these things but in an election year, we should all be wary of false promises by now. While watching Max Steel I was less concerned about the fate of the world than the fate of those involved in this project and made the mistake of taking it seriously. The film co-stars award nominated actors Maria Bello and Andy Garcia whose natural gravitas threatens to give Max Steel more weight than your average Smallville (2001-2011) knockoff. I understand that veteran actors need to eat but most actors should draw the line when asked to put on a half-assembled Power Rangers outfit.

The film itself is a cheap, shabby, impotent mess that tries oh so hard to ape the grungy self-serious aesthetic from recent superhero fare. But instead of finding a balance between pretension and moment- focused excess, the camera diddles through colorless scenes that look like they were shot through a layer of cellophane and Vaseline. This of course is when we get exteriors of antique pickup trucks chugging through amber-waved back-roads. When it comes to the heavy climaxes, the movie seems poised to give us the same blighted industrial zones we've seen in everything from low-budget horror movies to late-period Steven Seagal flicks. Only this time it's lighted like a neighborhood Zap- Zone to give the film's target audience (mainly toddlers and their misguided gamgams) the desire to whip out their video games.

It's all so genuinely and quite unpleasantly sad to see a movie like Max Steel. Watching bloated, intelligence insulting, big-budget fare fall flat can give anyone a sudden jolt of schadenfreude. Yet watching something whose only real crime is being too big for its britches, well it's just not that much fun. The film and its makers are trying to mimic a certain style, a certain flow, a certain spirit yet it simply have none of the right tools to do so. So they patched this puppy up with as much exposition, flashbacks and Josh Brener inspired wisecracks to trick you into thinking it was all worth it. But it's not, it's really, really not.

Max Steel is like going to the zoo, visiting the tiger exhibit and seeing a tiger born and raised in captivity. Many people arguably worked their best on this film, but because their best is inspired by the limited cultural echo chamber of comic books, blockbuster movies and Halo, we get a movie that lazes about, the fierceness in its eyes completely absent.

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kvang145 from MN, USA
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Well, I was completely disappointed. The only tip I can give to y'all is the movie, "Max Steel", is similar to "Power Rangers". Therefore if you are still into or starting to like those series, then go for it.

Otherwise if you're trying to find a good time, this will make you cry tears in despair. Likewise, if you're a viewer like me who wants to explore, you'll probably enjoy the beginning, but puke toward the end.

Here's some details into why the movie isn't a success for me:

The protagonist is arrogant

The villain is arrogant (oh... they're supposed to?)

The movie skips a lot of character build ups

Finally and most importantly... yelling solves EVERYTHING!!! These would be great in books/novels, but doesn't help movie production.

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subxerogravity from United States
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I remember a cartoon that pretty much was the same deal, except that cartoon more had a base on action sports which was what I was expecting with this film but as it turns out there was another more recent cartoon, this movie was based on.

Max is a kid who moved around a lot and he discovers why when he moves to the place were his mom and dad met and it triggers the energy spectrum that gives him super powers.

The formula was straight forward and it should have worked but all it did was doze me off, literally snoozing. Thought the movie did have some interesting surprises, but I spent most of the flick trying to keep my eyes open to pay too much attention.

Will say I enjoyed Andy García's role in this film. Far different than anything I've seen him in before and he most likely did it cause it was fun to do and he looked like he had fun. So that was enjoyable.

Max Steel could have been so much better, but it's not. So it's not worth watching. Should have based it on the 1st cartoon I guess.

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dorothewatcher from United States
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Was it great, nah but it was a fun ride and it WAS NOT A REMAKE OF THE CRAPPY SHAQ FILM. Max Steel was a kids series a few years back now being brought to the big screen: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2748608/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2 Shaq's film was based on John Henry Irons AKA Steel from DC Comics that came to prominence when the Death Of Superman run was in full swing: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120207/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 The reviews that I've read for the "racist remake!" or the "Whitewashed retelling of a Black man's story!" are baseless and ridiculous.

Was the film Oscar worthy...Hell no it was for kids, tweens and ol Max fanboys that liked the cartoon...Cool CGI & fun.

And to qualify, I am Black. I am 100% dedicated to what's good for Black people and I am 100% for the truth and honesty for all of us...Peace & love all!!!

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djo_34 from United States
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I downloaded this for my son who loves the animated series. I watched it in super fast motion to see if it will hold his attention. At 55 minutes you finally see Max's armor. He gets hit once by a... I don't know... some creature and the suit disappears. 17 minutes later, he gets his suit again and dukes it out against another dude in an armored suit. Didn't need to watch the fight scene. I can tell that this movie will hold the attention of a child for about 17 minutes, only because they can't wait to see Max Steel in his armor fighting creatures like in the series. Alas, it is a big pile of poop. I was watching at 10x speed and was still bored. Sad. What a waste. They should have made a 2 hour animated movie.

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SnoopyStyle
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Max McGrath (Ben Winchell) doesn't know much about his respected scientist father who died in a mysterious storm. His mother Molly (Maria Bello) brought him back to his father's old stomping grounds on the advise of colleague Dr. Miles Edwards (Andy Garcia). Max is a loner at school except Sofia Martinez befriends him. He's having strange effects and visions. Then an alien Steel escapes from his father's old lab and joins him. Max is emitting tachyon energy which, joined with Steel, is used to form the superhero Max Steel. Steel is an Ultralink alien and they end up battling other Ultralinks threatening to destroy the world.

I wouldn't say that this is horrible or irredeemable. It's simply weak stuff. Firstly, the Mattel name does not fill me with confidence. While Marvel and DC have gained credibility through some good work on the page and on the screen, Mattel has no such background. The very name denotes cheesiness on the big screen. I don't know anything about this IP's origins. The story is nothing special. There are a couple of first rate actors. There are a few twists. One is obvious from the start. Another one is head-scratching and less than reasonable. As an origin story, this is no Spider-man, Batman, or Superman. It's really another Young Adult movie at its heart and not terribly good even on that level. There are a few too many problems to overlook.

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adonis98-743-186503 from Greece
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The adventures of teenager Max McGrath and his alien companion, Steel, who must harness and combine their tremendous new powers to evolve into the turbo-charged superhero Max Steel. Let me start this review by saying that i had no anticipation for this movie because the trailer was weird and mediocre and i didn't know how it was going to turn out because i'm not a really big fan of this version of Max Steel it's like Power Rangers meets Iron Man and we have this, i mean everyone remembers the old Max Steel with the weapons and lasers from the 90's and that villain who wore his face as a mask and his actual face looked like a Terminator rip/off but they chose to go with the modern version and i get it because half of this kids don't even know who Max Steel is and judging by half of this reviews many people thought this was a remake of the 1997 Steel that starred Shaquille O' Neal but it really isn't. This film had a lot of issues and the main protagonist was kinda of a retard he even goes to his computer at one moment and you see him write in google "What Am I??????" or even "My Fingers throw energy" or something along those lines, i mean really? Then when he meets Steel that space robot he asks him "are you some kind of a robot? and you speak English?" this film has some great lines like that and i'm not kidding. It also has some pretty weird parts where they try to built tension during a dumb dinner scene with Andy Garcia, Maria Bello and Ben Winchell and it was simply awful they went from talking to action and that continued for like 5 minutes pretty much the whole movie is a mess from the acting, to the villains to pretty much everything and once we meet our villain who turns out to be Garcia he just turns out to be another dude in a suit who wants to absorb the energy from Max's suit and explodes that's it. As for positives well the cgi was nice, the suits were good both for Max and Garcia although it was a bit disappointing that they couldn't use his suit more than just 3 scenes and the only real emotion was when they showed his dad dying and how he sacrificed himself for his son and his wife as for Maria Bello she and Steel i think were the only decent thing about this movie, Garcia seemed out of place as a villain but at least he was way better than he was in Flopbusters. To wrap this up this film had a lot of flaws and it didn't know what it was trying to be it was half of Teen Drama with Max trying to recover from his father's death and he had to face a new environment with his new School and his love interest which is a girl named Sofia Martinez (how original right?) then it tried to be an action movie and a science fiction adventure and it failed even more on that, Max Steel had some pretty good ideas and it was made only for to bring money but unfortunately it bombed on the Box Office and it brought an 0% from Rotten Tomatoes i don't think it's as bad as a 0% for me but it was still pretty bad, unoriginal and boring and i'm gonna give it an 4.0/10 you won't miss anything to be fair..

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molly-mortensen from Michigan, USA
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I was a fan of the original CGI show from 2000, but this is a remake of the 2013 cartoon, which was entirely different and if it's anything like the movie, not nearly as good.

The first 20 minutes was pointless. Once Steel came into the movie it was only slightly better. Steel had a very silly sense of humor. (Perhaps young children will think he's funny.)

We get a little bit of action and then it slows down again. (And repeat.) I understand the need to establish his origins, but more needs to happen! It's not like the boring parts even had a point. I didn't get to know Max and I certainly didn't care what happened to him.

At 55 minutes we actually got an armored super hero! (For about ten seconds.)

And maybe I missed something, but I wasn't even sure what was going on at times. (Nor did I care.)

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lennybuttz from Green Bay WI, U.S.
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I had never heard of Max Steel, I didn't think it was a comic book but they are running out of comic book characters to make movies out of so who knows what they will pull out next? I was bored and watched it. I'd say for the most part the movie frustrated me. It seemed like there were so many simple things that could have been done better. I wasn't crazy about Steel's voice, to me the voice was too recognizable and I couldn't get the actors face out of my mind.

I wasn't very fond of the mother character, she seemed to 1 dimensional to me. I like Andy Garcia, he probably did the best job of all the actors in the movie but then again he is the most experienced. The guy who played Max is alright, he does a decent job but I did think all the shirtless scenes were a bit odd.

I felt this story was too drawn out, an hour into it and I was looking at the time wondering when something interesting was going to happen. This would have been a pretty good TV pilot movie to introduce a series but as a stand alone movie it was lacking.

superhero|teenager|teenage boy|robot|based on toy|character name in title|

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Certifications:
Japan:G / Philippines:PG-13 / Russia:12+ / Singapore:PG / Taiwan:PG-12 / USA:PG-13 (certificate #49580)