Arena - Kill to live? Live to kill?
Aside from the action scenes, which I found brutal, Arena is a movie about millions of bloodthirsty people trying to make a fortune betting on who will survive and who will die.
One of the main reasons why I like action movies more is the continuity of the story with the action scenes. Unfortunately, Arena fails to create continuity in the story. It has a plot that constantly revolves on the same theme. Nevertheless, I found the movie successful in terms of being able to see the ultimate bloodthirstiness of the people in the audience.
Bringing the fighters to the arena and asking them to continue until one of them dies and broadcasting every moment live on the internet and opening bets on who will win carries the story to a point. After that, the lack of any development in the story becomes boring. So much so that in every fight scene, what will happen and who will win is known well in advance.
Violent, bloody and boring scenes follow one after another. At those moments, the only thing I liked about the movie was the graphics used in the fight scenes. The graphics are designed according to the characteristics of the fighters and the weapons they use. The ones I found the most successful were the fights with historical columns. It reminded me of Mortal Kombat, a game I played for hours without getting bored years ago.
The clue I got from the graphics made me think that the fights and some of the music used in the movie might have been inspired by the same game. Indeed it was, only one person can leave the arena alive and each fight uses different weapons, different graphics and similar music. The only difference is that the Arena movie created its own story.
I liked the beginning and the end of the movie, David (played by Kellan Lutz) was very good in the transition from a simple firefighter character to an agent character. Although I found the fight scenes too bloody and brutal, his performance was impressive. He was successful in the way he characterized how brutal a person can become when the circumstances force him to be.
The movie could have been much more successful if it didn't repeat itself in the middle of the story. For example, the escape scene could have been longer and the repetitive loop could have been shortened. While watching the movie, you criticize the brutal and bloody scenes, but when you see the bloodlust of the people watching the fights, you are speechless. Are we really like this as humans? I am horrified at what we could do today without the laws that restrain us.
The surprise twist at the end fills in some of the gaps in the movie. It fills a few gaps in the story and makes the script more successful. Samuel L. Jackson, who plays the character of Logan, the organizer of the fights and the one who opens the bets by broadcasting them on the internet, shows his usual strong performance again. I love the way the actor reflects and harmonizes with each character he portrays.
I think action lovers will watch Arena with more interest, but let me say right away that the action scenes are limited to the arena and are extremely violent and bloody. I can recommend the movie to everyone who takes these things into consideration. If you have a Mortal Kombat fighting game in your past or present, will you connect the game and the movie like I did? I'm curious, thank you for being here and reading. I wish a good time to those who will watch the movie.