Overview
An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy) returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father (Nick Nolte), a recovering alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path toward the title prize, his brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton), a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family. Even though years have passed, recriminations and past betrayals keep Brendan bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father. But when Brendan's unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the most intense winner-take-all battle of their lives.
Warrior starts out slowly to provide some of the background to set the stage for this family affair, which then builds steadily to a grand final fight.
The major weakness of this movie is that the underdog-to-heroes plot is utterly predictable. Yet I would say it is a recommended watch if you enjoy fight movies. I rank it well above the classic Rocky in any case.
The characters get some depth and the acting of both Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy is very strong. Nick Nolte starts out as a strong supporting actor but his role unfortunately fizzles out towards the end of the movie (a script problem, not his acting). But the movie peaks in its powerful fight scenes – aided by the fact that this film has chosen the Mixed Martial Arts cage (MMA) over the boxing ring as its scene.
Overall – a very decent movie. Enjoy it for the fight scenes!
Geronimo
Great movie! Loved the bad ass fight scenes!!
Bart Hartgring
Glad you liked it Geronimo – I agree they are some of the better fight scenes in recent cinema history!