Closer to Bloodsport than Rocky

Rating: 7/10 (27 September 2011)

Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) returns home after a tour of duty in Iraq and re-unites with his estranged father Paddy (Nick Nolte). Paddy is a recovering alcoholic who wronged the family in the past. Tommy is a former wrestling star and although he wants nothing to do with his father he recognizes that Paddy is a great trainer and asks Paddy to train him for a mixed martial arts tournament with a five million dollar purse.
Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) is Tommy's older brother. He works as a school teacher but is having trouble making ends meet. Brendan is a former UFC fighter and when he hears about the five million dollar event he decides to try and enter it himself to save his house from getting foreclosed on.
None of the family's members get along. Tommy and Brendan have not spoken for many years and Tommy feels as though he was deserted by Brendan. Both Tommy and Brendan hate their father because of his abusive alcoholic past. All of this tension comes to head when the two sons both reach the final and are forced to fight each other.
I have to give Warrior credit for choosing to have the story revolve around the two brothers, they both have interesting back stories and you want them both to win. The problem is that one of them has to lose and that alienates some of the audience who won't like the conclusion of the film.
I am struggling to not give too much away here for those who haven't seen the film but, for me this movie was somewhat like the Star Wars episode I the Phantom Menace. The most interesting character in that movie turned out to be the bad guy (Darth Maul) and instead of feeling elated when he died (sorry for the spoiler for that one person out there that didn't see Phantom Menace.) I felt more let down then elated. That's how I felt when I left Warrior. (No one actually dies in Warrior, this was just a metaphor for what I was feeling not actual events.)
Thomas Hardy and Nick Nolte are exceptional in this movie. This is some of the best acting I have seen from Nolte since The Good Thief (2002). Joel Edgerton does a decent job as well but his character is really just a laundry list of movie clichés. He doesn't want to fight but he has to do it for the money, his wife doesn't want him to fight and there is tension in their relationship, it just goes on and on. It almost as if Gavin O'Connor just watched every movie ever made about the guy nobody thinks will win and used every gimmick to create Brendan Conlon.
I know a lot of people are comparing this film to Rocky but I think a closer comparison would be Bloodsport (1988) with Jean-Claude Van Damme.