Arena Wars (2024)—Stylistically Savvy yet Underwhelming

Remember the book/movie series The Hunger Games? Well, what if I told you that it wasn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last franchise to address a gladiatorial TV show. From The Running Man and Death Race 2000, modern media commentary through death games has been done to death (no pun intended) with varying success. Today, we have a new entry into this story type: Arena Wars. Which must bring something really unique to the idea, right?

Corporations have taken over the world in the bleak future of 2040. So pretty much like today. A new reality TV show called “Arena Wars” is created, where prisoners on death row are given a chance to win their freedom (so, not like today!). But after ratings drop, the showrunners recruit a prisoner who could be a hero to the people. Luke Bender (played by John Wells), a wrongfully convicted former Marine, is chosen. With nine other prisoners at his side, Luke must now fight through seven killers to earn his freedom.

Much like The Hunger Games, Arena Wars features undertrained souls who are thrown into a meat grinder with the pretense of freedom should they win. Little do they know that the game is rigged against them. But unlike the former, the people fed into the gladiator games are not teens, rather criminals. And they’re also injected with a chip in their heads that will explode should they attempt to flee or break the rules. Sound familiar? If the 1987 film The Running Man came to mind, then I don’t blame you. On paper, the two share an identical premise. Both involve prisoners facing off against pre-selected and better equipped opponents, shady showrunners and even a wrongfully convicted protagonist. Although the films heavily differ with their characters and a few details, just because something is different doesn’t make it better.

You could argue that the premise is a grim prediction of the future, where combat sports like MMA come full circle to the Roman gladiator games. But even during the Roman Empire, contestants were rarely killed. Most gladiators were adequately trained and even specialized in certain weapons, such as the trident and net. They even had celebrity status and unions formed to give them better living conditions. And before you say that death games can skyrocket ratings, I wholeheartedly disagree. In fact, it’ll cause the sport to diminish. Why? Because no one wants to see their favorite athlete brutally die. And there will be no willing participants in a sport where death is a high probability. Sponsors can’t promote their athletes if they die quickly and there would be no prominent voice for the sport.

I do like Arena Wars’ cyberpunk setting and I can’t help but smile whenever I see an establishing or transitional shot featuring the city. The film knows when and how to use its lighting and framing to further enhance the tone, whether it be contemplative or action-packed. And unlike some movies I’ve reviewed, the neon lighting doesn’t drown out the sets or actors. This leads me into my next point of praise: the sets. I really like the film’s minimalistic yet ultramodern set design to create this futuristic environment. The rooms, clubs and even the arena itself perfectly encapsulates this postmodern corporate technopoly. This also extends to the gladiator costumes and props. My only issue was that the gladiators all look the same. I had a tough time figuring out who was who just because most of their masks looked too similar.

Speaking of characters, what you see is what you get. Our lead is the tragic, noble soldier who cares for his fellow inmates. That sounds good, right? Well, therein lies a problem: he’s just a generic action hero. You could replace him with almost any ex-military main character from any action movie. Meanwhile, the rest of the cast is a grab-bag of character tropes. You have the tough one, the funny sidekick and the token girl. The only other notable figures are veteran actors Michael Madsen of Kill Bill and Reservoir Dogs fame and Eric Roberts who has over 700 acting credits on IMDB. Madsen plays one of the hosts of the show and does a good job conveying the snake oil salesman media personality. Roberts, on the other hand, only appears for maybe a minute at most. I hope he got his money’s worth.

Arena Wars has a runtime of about an hour and a half. Yet I think the first thirty minutes could’ve either been trimmed down or even completely cut out. We open to a prisoner fighting for his freedom only to get killed by a gladiator. Then we’re introduced to another group of prisoners who also get killed just to introduce the main character and his cohorts. Why do we need to see the first group of prisoners die if the message is already conveyed in the first five minutes? And to make it worse, we are given the same explanation of Arena Wars’ premise TWICE! I understand it’s Luke’s first time entering the games, and you could argue that this exposition dumping is necessary for a character who doesn’t understand their circumstances. But it makes no sense that the audience has to hear the same spiel again.

At best, I’d describe Arena Wars as stylistically savvy yet underwhelming. Valuable time that could’ve been spent on good storytelling is traded for exposition dumping. Despite some stellar sets, cinematography and lighting, the premise and characters are unoriginal. When a film has a dramatic death scene and all I ask myself is “who is this guy again?”, the film has failed at a fundamental level. Michael Madsen does a good job keeping the film somewhat afloat, but even he sounds bored by the end of it. All-in-all, while Arena Wars doesn’t quite succeed, Brandon Slagle is a skilled filmmaker and has potential to make something great in the future. Who knows? Maybe Arena Wars will be the start of more stylistic films. Something that the world can definitely use more of.

Co-Written By: Owen Gonzalez