Warrior is cliche-ridden, utterly predictable...and altogether wonderful
Anyone who has ever seen a sports movie could predict before popping the disk in what would happen in Warrior. There is no mystery here. There is nothing interesting about this movie. Everyone who is reading this has probably worked out the whole plot of the film from the poster already (especially anyone who's ever seen Rocky).
It does not matter. Warrior will grab you, run you along its familiar, comforting paths, and then take you away with it to soaring emotional heights.
The film is greatly aided by a stellar performance by every member of its cast. Instead of going for the false gravitas of Clint Eastwood's somewhat perplexingly popular Million Dollar Baby, Warrior makes its case through earnestness. There is no heart-breakingly tragic confluence of unusual circumstances to help the audience remember what the point is. The story is every character in this piece is one we've heard before. Joel Edgerton's Brendan is an ex-fighter-turned-high-school-teacher and parent struggling to stave off foreclosure while his estranged brother Tommy, played by Tom Hardy, is a former Marine with battlefield PTSD who turns to fighting as the only way he can help the widow of his deceased squadmate. Neither one of these is exceptional (depressingly so, in fact). Nick Nolte plays their formerly alcoholic, abusive father, but he's no bellicose violent tyrant, just a sad old man who lost his family a long time ago. We've seen this before across dozens, possibly hundreds of movies. Maybe that's why the earnest performances strike such a strong chord. The emotional core of the film is the one thing it has to move the audience and swings for the fences. So much soul and honest emotion goes into this film that by the end, you truly don't want either man to lose and wonder, if fleetingly, whether there might be some other way besides the inevitable end.
On a more technical note, the fight choreography of this film is absolutely perfect. New fans to MMA often have some issue with understanding the intricacies of some of the techniques and how to tell the direction of a fight. Thanks to some spectacular camera work and an excellent explanation of the events by the announcer characters, this should not be a problem to those viewers unfamiliar with MMA.
I really only have a couple critiques of Warrior. First, while both Jennifer Morrison and Vanessa Martinez are excellent for the screentime they get, they are both very clearly there as motivational figures for the two main characters, Brendan and Tommy, Martinez especially. I would have liked at least a little more time spent on Morrison's character, like how she met Brendan, her role in how the family broke up in the first place, and how scared she is of her husband once again becoming a professional fighter.
Second, this one is only as a fan of the sport. The UFC might have made its debut as only a slightly-more skilled version of Toughman-type competitions found in seedy bars and underground arenas, but in the 20 years since, the character of the sport has drastically changed. I would have liked it if the film had made it clear that, aside from the super-athletes at the top of the pile, MMA is now very much a sport made up of people just like Brendan: sportsmen with families, many with college educations, and regular day jobs who fight in the cage for a chance to support their loved ones at a level they've never previously dreamed of.
It does not matter. Warrior will grab you, run you along its familiar, comforting paths, and then take you away with it to soaring emotional heights.
The film is greatly aided by a stellar performance by every member of its cast. Instead of going for the false gravitas of Clint Eastwood's somewhat perplexingly popular Million Dollar Baby, Warrior makes its case through earnestness. There is no heart-breakingly tragic confluence of unusual circumstances to help the audience remember what the point is. The story is every character in this piece is one we've heard before. Joel Edgerton's Brendan is an ex-fighter-turned-high-school-teacher and parent struggling to stave off foreclosure while his estranged brother Tommy, played by Tom Hardy, is a former Marine with battlefield PTSD who turns to fighting as the only way he can help the widow of his deceased squadmate. Neither one of these is exceptional (depressingly so, in fact). Nick Nolte plays their formerly alcoholic, abusive father, but he's no bellicose violent tyrant, just a sad old man who lost his family a long time ago. We've seen this before across dozens, possibly hundreds of movies. Maybe that's why the earnest performances strike such a strong chord. The emotional core of the film is the one thing it has to move the audience and swings for the fences. So much soul and honest emotion goes into this film that by the end, you truly don't want either man to lose and wonder, if fleetingly, whether there might be some other way besides the inevitable end.
On a more technical note, the fight choreography of this film is absolutely perfect. New fans to MMA often have some issue with understanding the intricacies of some of the techniques and how to tell the direction of a fight. Thanks to some spectacular camera work and an excellent explanation of the events by the announcer characters, this should not be a problem to those viewers unfamiliar with MMA.
I really only have a couple critiques of Warrior. First, while both Jennifer Morrison and Vanessa Martinez are excellent for the screentime they get, they are both very clearly there as motivational figures for the two main characters, Brendan and Tommy, Martinez especially. I would have liked at least a little more time spent on Morrison's character, like how she met Brendan, her role in how the family broke up in the first place, and how scared she is of her husband once again becoming a professional fighter.
Second, this one is only as a fan of the sport. The UFC might have made its debut as only a slightly-more skilled version of Toughman-type competitions found in seedy bars and underground arenas, but in the 20 years since, the character of the sport has drastically changed. I would have liked it if the film had made it clear that, aside from the super-athletes at the top of the pile, MMA is now very much a sport made up of people just like Brendan: sportsmen with families, many with college educations, and regular day jobs who fight in the cage for a chance to support their loved ones at a level they've never previously dreamed of.