Available on VOD June 25th from Gravitas Ventures.
While Edgar Wright and Glen Powell are currently in the process of crafting their remake of “Running Man,” Brandon Slagle jumps to the front of the line to get his hits in first. “Arena Wars” looks great and has a classic idea from the Stephen King novel. In fact, it’s pretty much just a small budget remake of the classic film with convicts, and a game show and psychos, etc. The problem with “Arena Wars” is that is it pretty much a ton of filler with only some semblance of narrative in sparse moments. If “Arena Wars” were a bag of chips it’d only have a small hand full of chips and a ton of smelly air puffing it up.
In the year 2045, convicted criminals are given a unique opportunity: they can compete in the world’s number one televised sporting event: Arena Wars. The stakes are high—they must survive seven rooms and face seven of the most vicious killers in the country. If they emerge victorious, they regain their freedom. It’s a deadly battle for survival, where every move counts.
“Arena Wars” is about ninety minutes and does nothing but drag its feet to give us actual progression in the narrative. Whether it’s the small budget, or lack of interesting screenplay, Brandon Slagle brings us through so much just to get to the point. He sets up huge exposition dumps, and discusses the perimeters of the game show, and then even sets up a group of characters to go through this gauntlet. Then he turns around and announces “Wait, those were just cannon fodder, now for the actual main characters!”
It feels like such a cheap way to pad the run time by building up to nothing only to give us new characters mid-way. As for the rest of the production, the budget is noticeable as Slagle re-uses a lot of sets and stock footage throughout the film’s run time. As well, as per what I’m assuming is some kind of blood oath you’re supposed to take as an indie filmmaker, Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts do make brief appearances. “Arena Wars” spends too much time with empty nonsense that it could have taken that time to deliver interesting social commentary.
Maybe like the state of television? Exploitation? The dehumanization of criminals? The dehumanization of reality TV? All of this is virtually nowhere to be seen, in favor of goofy back and forth dialogue that often sounds as if its aping Shane Black. Director Slagle is on to something with “Arena Wars” but he never follows through.