Warrior

I went back and forth between wanting to and not wanting to see Warrior. When I first saw the trailer, it looked a little cheesy. But I loved the cast, and shit, I love a good sports movie. And for whatever reason, when the trailer was first released I was seeing an extremely high number of movies in the theater at the time and saw that trailer at every single one. I just got sick of it. It's not a bad trailer by any means, but after seeing it so many times I just let it get to me and threw the movie to the bottom of my must see list.

When it finally came out and got great reviews not only from critics but audiences alike, I still couldn't drag myself to the theater. Having finally watched it the other week, I wish I could go back and slap myself for waiting this long to see such a great movie.

On the surface, there really isn't much new Warrior brings to the table, aside from the MMA aspect. Of course, it's unfair to judge this movie without scratching the surface, especially since director/co-writer Gavin O'Conner has carefully disguised a heartbreaking family drama as a 'Rocky' like underdog story.

And that's what really made this movie for me. We get to spend over an hour with the characters before the main fighting event the movie is based around. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton each prove themselves a force in the ring in the film's many fight scenes, but it's the moments in between where these guys really get to me. Both guys have very different, yet very similar reasons for entering the tournament, and all the time spent exploring these reasons makes it extremely difficult to choose one to root for. They are both flawed men, but as we come to learn they are both just trying to do right for the ones they love.

Nick Nolte and Jennifer Morrison offer fine supporting work as the alcoholic father who drove the family apart and Edgerton's wife, respectively. Morrison's character in particular stood out to me. Katy and myself are in no way in a similar situation as Edgarton and Morrison are in this film, but every time they were on screen I found myself that much more enthralled. I think the longer I'm married the more I realize how much it means to me, and seeing these two people push through such hard times together really spoke to me.

As for the actual fights themselves, O'Conner puts you in the ring in a way that's not distracting. You can always tell what's going on, who's who, and most of all how you feel each and every hit. Almost the entire last hour of the movie is fighting, so it was crucial that with each new fight came something different. Some are long, some are short, but they are always exciting.

I'm not an MMA fan by any means. Hell, I'm not a sports fan by any real means, but Warrior takes it time and lets us get to know these characters and get invested in them, so that when the time comes we want what they want, making it damn near impossible not to get caught up in the sport aspect of it.

For whatever reason, Warrior did not catch fire with audiences, which surprises me since it's such a feel good movie. Maybe they were fatigued from family sports dramas with The Fighter. Either way, even if you are barely wanting to see this movie, give it a shot. And I dare you not to get choked up at the end, I dare you.

Suck it.