I doubt I will ever get tired of a story about an arena based life or death gameshow. Ever since the legendary The Running Man I have loved this idea. More recently there was the trilogy of Kill Switch books written by Sean E. Britten that used a similar idea, and now there is Arena Wars, a new action film set in a dystopian future that was directed by Brendon Slagle (The Flood, Attack of the Unknown), with a story by Slagle and Michael and Sonny Mahal.
In 2045 death row inmates are offered the chance to take part in a brutal gameshow titled 'Arena Wars'. The idea is simple, seven different arenas, each of which features a different themed killer. Should any of the contestants defeat all seven killers then they will win their freedom. With ratings plummeting, the show's owner, Belladonna (Kevin Hager - Bermuda Island, Attack of the Unknown) has realised that this is likely due to the audience not wanting to root for convicted criminals, and so arranges for Luke Bender (John Wells - Bermuda Island, One Must Fall) to join the latest game. It is revealed that this former marine is innocent of the crimes he was imprisoned for, and with that knowledge made public finally the audience have someone they genuinely wish to see win. Feeling threatened by Bender's increasing popularity, Belladonna makes plans to set the man up for a fall.
In many ways Arena Wars is not able to escape from the shadow of The Running Man, using several of the same ideas but in a more low budget fashion. There is deep-fake technology used, themed killers, backstage shenanigans, but all done in a lesser style that sometimes exposed the more limited budget. There was also a slight pacing issue, particularly in the first act that made the film seem it was going to centre on an entirely different cast of contestants led by Perez (the ever reliable Robert LaSardo - Bloodthirst, Amber Road) before abruptly changing track. This pacing problem again pops up as when Bender's 'Arena Wars' journey begins I was fully expecting this to be the rest of the movie, but then after a few battles the remaining contestants are suddenly in an after show party with it revealed that the event is split over episodes. I would have preferred if the whole game had been done in one block to really ramp up the exhaustion and threat for the characters, though that was just a personal preference. I felt the fun interviews that play over the end credits would have integrated the commentator Samson (Michael Madsen - Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs) better into the show if they had been edited in, rather than have his actual in-film segments feel removed from the on-screen action. It would have also helped at giving more depth to the protagonist group.
There was plenty of action however, and I thought the design of the arena killers was fantastic. It's a shame that there is no real personality to these killers, they are for the most part mute, and their origins mostly left mysterious. The same goes for the cast of protagonists, some, such as the loveable Khan (Johnny Huang - Bloodthirst) shined, others seemed to be there just to get killed, usually in entertaining ways. There are battles against such killers as a chainsaw wielding maniac, and a clown armed with a spiked baseball bat. While these fights are often swiftly over, there are some fun special effects, such as someone who is chain sawed in half horizontally! There were plenty of well choreographed fights that were always fun to sit through. It would have been nice for the arenas to match the personalities of each of the killers, but rather than have the contestants go through seven different arenas, they mainly fight in just a couple, with the killers coming to them rather than them going to the killer's arenas.
I love the idea for things such as Arena Wars and I will always be up for checking them out. I enjoyed this, it was entertaining with plenty of fight sequences, but it never quite lived up to the idealised version of the movie I had in my head. Arena Wars releases June 25th via Gravitas Ventures.
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