Arena Wars

Arena Wars is set in 2045, following convicted criminals who are offered an opportunity to compete in the world’s #1 televised sporting event, Arena Wars. All the convicts must survive 7 rooms and 7 of the most brutal killers in the country. If they win the event, they regain their freedom. Following a more action than horror route, and derivative of titles such as The Running Man (1987), Battle Royale (2000) and even The Suicide Squad (2021), the piece wears its influences on its sleeve with its conceptually intriguing premise.

Unfortunately, despite having a gnarly and pulse-pounding opening sequence, the piece quickly goes downhill as the narrative becomes increasingly dull with a severe lack of tension and action, given the premise. The chemistry-laden team of prisoners are fun to watch as they scheme their survival plans, and there is a unique showcase of costuming and props, heavily reminiscent of Twisted Metal (2023) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). However, the film sadly fails to deliver on its premise, thanks to there being no real direction of where the narrative is heading and suffering from a litany of issues, such as lethargic pacing and profoundly unengaging set pieces. Thankfully, the film does, however, make suitable use of its minimal budget, as the VFX and make-up are astounding, creating grotesque imagery, which adds to the campy feel stylistically; it is just a shame the camera seems to cut away from any particularly gruesome visuals. The editing is frenetic within hand-to-hand combat; however, the action feels stilted and frequently cuts away to oddly inserted segments of crowd reactions to the event.

The characterisation is profoundly paper-thin for the protagonist and the supporting cast, with a brief placement of exposition explaining their backstory, which feels uninspired and bland, completely derivative of other protagonists placed in dystopian life-or-death scenarios. The ensemble performances across the board are fine, not helped by their lack of personality or depth; however, Michael Madsen does chew up the scenery as one of the hosts commenting on the sporting event, making dialogue outside of the prison group fun to witness. Sadly, there is frequent use of cringe-inducing one-liners within action set pieces, and the supporting characters feel like an afterthought when it is all said and done. Overall, the poor dialogue and characterisation means the narrative amounts to shockingly minor, with no real excitement or satisfaction in the culmination of the central character’s arc. The narrative also concludes abruptly with no real sense of direction for what follows after the credits roll, which makes the whole experience feel wasteful and a complete misuse of the talent involved, especially in the technical department.

While each room the characters are placed in presents something unique and fun conceptually and visually, the piece fails to elicit any tension or feverish nature for the audience to witness. This is honestly the most disappointing aspect of the entire runtime, considering what the premise suggests. If anything, the opening credits convey more fun and creativity than the rest of the piece, thanks to some electrifying music and visually stunning displays of the titular Arena Wars.

Arena Wars is a disappointing display of a conceptually derivative concept of better pieces of visual media, with some solid production value, given the minimal budget. Unfortunately, the narrative is consistently monotonous, with a complete lack of ferocity in the set pieces, stilted direction and baffling editing choices. Accompanied by uninspired characterisation, and with no clear direction of where the story is going, the narrative leads to a grinding halt and an unsatisfying conclusion lacking depth or memorability to boast.