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“Winning is the best thing in the world,” Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) narrates in the opening scene of “The Smashing Machine,” after brutally smashing in his opponent’s face to take home a mixed martial arts (MMA) trophy belt. The crowd roars and lights flash as the grainy film camera-esque lens comes into focus, panning over Kerr’s inhumanly large muscles.

The biopic, based on the 2002 documentary “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr,” follows the champion MMA fighter through four tumultuous years of his career (1997-2000), during which he battles addiction, heartbreak, and his overwhelming desire to succeed.

The film boasts striking visuals and cinematography, making it hard to look away. That can be for the better — think nostalgic 90s color-grading — or for the worse — imagine gruesome punches to the face. Cinematography aside, director Benny Safdie sacrifices plot and character development to achieve his artistic vision, resulting in a product that falls just short of successfully merging intense action with the indie appeal of A24 movies.

Mark’s character is complex and unpredictable; in one moment, he is forgiving his opponent for kneeing him in the head, and, in the next, he is refusing to look his girlfriend, Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt), in the eye. His mood swings are only heightened by his addiction to opioid painkillers and steroids. All the while, Mark shields his emotional dysregulation from view behind his gentle demeanor and kind smile.

Eventually breaking down, Mark overdoses, goes to rehab, and misses a season of MMA. For someone whose entire life was dedicated to success, this series of events would have been a devastating loss for Mark. In the film, however, the effect of this trauma is hardly noticeable; Mark continues to live as he used to, except for that each time he suffers a blow in the boxing ring, a dissonant piano chord strikes. In this way, the film fails to fully expand on the impact of Mark’s breakdown — an integral part of the movie — and instead only weakly hints at it through rather forced and inconsistent spats with Dawn.

In such a character-driven film, the intermittent arguments and passive-aggressive remarks between the two protagonists seem disjointed. Although the individual scenes are well-acted and believable, the trajectory of Mark and Dawn’s relationship is chaotic, making it hard to understand and follow. For example, the pair will appear madly in love one moment, while two scenes later, they are screaming and shattering bowls around the house, leaving audiences baffled by the abrupt switch. The intention masked behind the characters’ words feels hazy — potentially in order to create mystique. However, it is not possible to achieve emotional complexity when characters are simply hard to get to know in the first place.

However, as mentioned earlier, the film’s visual power tends to conceal the stilted and confusing plot. With shooting that emulates a documentary, the cameraperson follows behind Kerr, growing more shaky during the emotional highs and sitting — like a fly on the wall — in quiet scenes of introspection. Encouraging viewers to feel as though they are part of the documentary crew witnessing the action in real time, the unpolished but highly thoughtful videography seamlessly blurs the line between fiction and reality.

During Mark’s moments of distress, the camera avoids his face and instead focuses on his back, for instance, subtly integrating emotions beyond dialogue and actions into each shot. While the character development is lacking, it is once again the film’s innovative cinematography allows viewers to at least root for Mark’s recovery and eventual success.

When giving credit to the film’s cinematography, the expert use of color in the film cannot go unmentioned. Mark and Dawn’s date at the carnival is visually stunning, with bright bulb signs and vibrant carousel horses that completely draws viewers into the scene. Other than its immersive effects, the film’s lighting of the border ropes around the boxing ring cleverly creates built-in leading lines, drawing viewers’ eyes to the central action.

With these meticulous and quintessentially A24-esque scenes, “The Smashing Machine” isn’t too different from an indie action movie, which is only bolstered by the fact that A24 famously allows directors the freedom to take risks and not necessarily cater to the box office. While the film struggles in its development of Mark’s character and the consistency of his relationship with Dawn, Safdie’s creative and deliberate choices make “The Smashing Machine” a worthwhile watch purely for its stunning visual appeal.