Review of Arena (2011) by Monic T — 17 Sep 2013

The story itself is kind of unoriginal, person forced to fight for X reason, what I havnt seen before is that its being broadcast to the internet, im sure its been done but this is my first experience. and the people watching are what ruined it for me, especially these college students, the main problem I was having was the way they were acting while watching. rather than what the real reactions would be, they were acting like it was a UFC match. it could have had darker and more serious tones, but the people watching, especially the college kids, they sucked in every bit of my hate and completely ruined the film. a version of the film that simply let you know "people watch this crap" and would give you a reminder every now and then if you had forgotten would have been infinitely better, but no, show these people watching it. not beating off like they probably would be doing, but going " OOOH dude thats radical" and cheering the way they do completely takes away from the film, and the only arguement for that is "well romans acted like that during gladiator fights" now thats true, but thats rome, and romans were insane.

And there is also the woman. she is the protaginists kidnapper/love interest. how could you ever love someone who put you in a situation where you are forced to fight and kill? well she takes care of him and helps him clean up his wounds after each fight. and apparantly she actually isnt a bad person, shes actually a hostage and forced to do this, even though she is getting paid for it, allowed to go anywhere she wants, since she is basically the bait. and decides NOT to go to FBI, CIA, INTERPOL, or any other even the local authorities with information of the location. oh. she is such a hostage, but even if you missed that unmentioned bit, the whole "im not a bad person" thing is torn asunder when you see her casually kill a wounded prison guard.

These are the only 2 things really have to gripe about the movie, it was rather entertaining, but one without the viewers, or better represented viewers would bump this up to 3 stars one without a pointless thing to make you care about the woman could get this to 3 1/2 to 4 stars.