‘Warrior’ features not one, but two protagonists, both vying for the same exact goal. They’re estranged brothers, both competing in the biggest Mixed Martial Arts competition ever with the prize being five million dollars. The two have their own understandable reasons for wanting the prize money. But alas, in the end only one can win it all, and it doesn’t help that the film makes us like both brothers.

The older brother is Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton). He’s a high school physics teacher, as well as a family man. Married to his high school sweetheart and having two beautiful young daughters, Brendan has left his UFC career long behind. The younger brother is Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy, from ‘Inception‘), an ex-marine who fought in the middle east, hiding a tragic secret. Tommy had always been the more talented of the two, and given more attention to by their father and former coach, Paddy (Nick Nolte, the most talented actor in the film), when they were younger. Tommy returns to his father after a 14-year hiatus, requesting Paddy’s tutelage once again so he can fight for a living.

While Tommy’s busy training with his father, Brendan runs into money trouble with the bank, and his teaching position isn’t enough for him to provide for his family. Brendan resorts to fighting in underground competitions to make extra cash. Eventually the five million dollar MMA tournament catches the eyes of both Tommy and Brendan, their paths inevitably crossing.

Brendan and Tommy aren’t on speaking terms because of their family’s past conflicts. Paddy used to be a heavy drunk, and when their parents separated it was Brendan who stuck with their father, whereas Tommy followed their mother. Now Paddy is entering his 1,000th day of sobriety and attempting to turn his life around by resolving issues with both sons.

The first half of ‘Warrior’ sets up the premise of the film as well as the goals of the two brothers. The second half of the film is literally the entire MMA tournament. Fighting films usually save the competition segments for the end, specifically the third act. But ‘Warrior’ takes the unusual route of presenting practically an hour-long series of fights. This decision has benefits, but also flaws. With an hour allotted for the big tournament the film is allowed lengthier fight scenes, as well as more time with the two brothers in their most crucial state of mind. Each brother is seen going through three bouts, and enough time is given to each of the fights that it doesn’t force the fights to be rushed; there’s breathing room between each fight.

The downside to having an entire second half dedicated to the big tournament is the loss of scenes dedicated to plot and character development. The beginning of ‘Warrior’ introduces the major characters and their goals for the film, but because the second half of the film is the entire tournament, the plot and character development is reduced to a long montage of training clips. Sure, the montage is good and exciting, but it shouldn’t take the place of the film’s time that should have been spent exploring its characters.

There’s only an hours worth of time allowed with the brothers before the hour-long fighting tournament, but ‘Warrior’ makes the mistake of being biased towards one brother rather than both having equal opportunities. Brendan is given exceptionally more focus and screen time than Tommy is, thus we like him more. Because of this film bias, we want Brendan to win a little bit more than we want Tommy to, even though both brothers are deserving of the prize money. A film like ‘Warrior’ should have spent equal time on both brothers, and it shouldn’t have to resort to a simple fighting montage.

‘Warrior’ is a lot like last year’s critically-acclaimed film, ‘The Fighter‘. The two films’ trailers are actually quite similar in composition, too! Both films feature underdog characters, damaged families, and fighting. Both are well directed and feature fine performances. However, where ‘Warrior’ lacks in important character and plot developments, ‘The Fighter’ has. The fight scenes in ‘Warrior’ easily beat out the ones featured in ‘The Fighter’, but important story developments are almost always more important than the greatness of fight scenes.

I have to say it again, though. Director Gavin O’Connor (‘Miracle’) did an admiral job at directing the fight scenes because they are just fantastic! Seeing the two brothers struggling and fighting with everything they have is both exciting and suspenseful. We know that both Brendan and Tommy will make it to the finals and have to fight one another, there’s no other logical way for this kind of film to end in. But still seeing the two fight their way through tough opponents in the tournament is great. Each fight is riveting and they’ll keep most viewers at the edge of their seats, especially the final fight. And with this final fight, which is the emotional highlight of the film because we reach the fate of the two brothers, comes one of the most crowd-pleasing endings to a film I’ve seen in a while. It truly does leave such an emotional toll, both a happy one and a sad one.

Three out of four Kents.

Extra Notes:

• I liked Tom Hardy after seeing him in ‘Inception’, so I thought it was cool that he’s going to be in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ as Bane. After seeing him in ‘Warrior’ as the hunchback fighting machine, Tommy Riordan, I can totally see him as Bane. No doubt about it!