What about Arena Combat Movies? You know what we don’t get enough of anymore like we did back in the day? Arena combat movies. I don’t know why that is, either. That’s beside the point, though what you need to know is that the good folks of the Mahal Empire have remedied that dearth with their latest outing, Arena Wars.
The Year is 2045. In the BIG fucking city (that’s what the title card says anyways), Arena Wars dominates the television sets. The concept of the game is simple and the formula is a time tested, winning one: seven death row convicts are given the chance to win their freedom, but they must first defeat seven deadly armed killers in a battle to the death. There have always been arenas throughout human history, however, the audience has shifted in 2045 and they are bored of the same cracks in the bones of a dozing format. It is a massacre aired once in a week and apparently even a good one will have exhausted its value in the views, raking in from repeating the same format over and over again.
How about an innocent contestant and a former Marine who is confined to death row for refusing to snitch on a superior officer? This kind of television is what you yearn for where the good guy is always the underdog. Luke Bender (John Wells; Bermuda Island) and a number of assorted thug criminals and killers are brought into the arena by Mahoney for an epic battle that will change the very history of Arena Wars forever.
Mahal’s films have a certain cohesiveness in both their style and substance. And even when the plot is a little improbable one does have a great time due to the high quality of cinematography, location use and actor chemistry which is a combination you would wish to tell your friends about. Arena Wars is no exception. It is a bloody gorgeous film with one of the most captivating soundtracks I have heard in any Mahal movie to date.
There’s no wastage of time in that Arena Wars features plenty of well filmed battle sequences, with prioritization on the action (even though there’s a good amount of practical gore to go with it). Arena Wars is obviously inspired by the 1987 cult hit The Running Man with the title of the film providing a clue as to its structure. It’s safe to say that there are subtle hints qui le and there that pay homage to that film making it a bloody fun ride.
The cast of actors who work in Arena Wars is impressive, featuring established figures like Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts, as well as talented and, to be honest, somewhat overlooked actors like Robert Las Ardo (Night of the Tommyknockers), Wesley Cannon (Bloodthirst) and Sheri Davis (Bermuda Island) among others. In the case of John Wells, he is very convincing in his role of a brutal but fairly good natured Marine convict, not overstepping in bravado but just right to tilt the role a notch.
Arena Wars is a tight and trim screenplay that knows how to fully utilize the large number of the cast and provide you with both the people whose side you want to be on as well as those you love to loathe. It is well written and has a lot of satirical content regarding television and its place in our lives, the primitivity it represents, and humanity’s thoughtless traits in general. On that score, it is a story as old as time.
Arena Wars is an ambitious movie with big aspirations and it directly apes its intended goals. There is a plethora of sub genres and for every Gladiator there is a Private Gladiator (yes, that’s a porn version of Gladiator, but you get the point). The point is that Arena Wars finds the right sub genre which has good action and cinematics as well as a range of actors to ensure that the film stays true to what brought it there in the first place.
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