Haggar V: Ninjas VS Cyborgs Genre: A Sci-Fi Concept executed as an Action Film
Premise: A modern day group of soldiers stumbles into an under sea arena where Vikings, Nazis, Indians and Cyborg Armies fighting it out to the death. Don't go looking for subplots or minor stories or character development or anything else, you won't find it.
About: This script was picked up last year for an undisclosed sum by Summit (who did a bunch of crap for a long time until they produced Twilight and most recently did Astro Boy.) It currently looks like Jeff Wadlow (who directed some film called Cry Wolf, but more importantly is the nephew of Katie Couric) will be directing. This has Michael Bay-ish written all over it.
Writers: They're both first-time writers. English-bred, 39 year old Darren Howell (a tube driver) only has Arena as a credit on IMDB, and Toby Wagstaff (who by the name alone I'm going to assume is also English) has a couple miscellaneous credits, including one for writing. Essentially, these guys are two long-time dabblers who finally made a go of it. I'm not a huge fan of this script and I'm not necessarily sure how good they are at writing, but it's nice whenever first timers can crack into the system.
Alright, boys and girls. I'm gonna take a little break from listening to Teardrops by Womack and Womack to write this review. Arena....where do I begin? It's like a beautiful woman who can't make conversation. Scratch the surface and all you find here is nothingness.
Arena does something brilliant towards the end. Instead of veering towards the "this is televised, isn't it scary when it's the future and every possible nightmare you can think of will be available for audiences to watch?" it offers another idea why something would be set up like "the arena". That's smart. If you ask me, the messed up event as a tv show reached its zeinth with the Glaser-directed and de Souza-scripted Running Man. That film had the right idea, it got the concept out of the way early and then focused itself around the action. Arena, however, keeps wanting to step back every 10 pages or show and marvel at its concept, which just let me unimpressed with the ending at the end. I mean it's cool. And this trailer would be awesome. But the writers did not reinvent the wheel. You can't coast on a generic action premise that spisn off from a high concept idea.
So why'd it sell? It's an awesome concept. And that alone makes it a worthwhile. But the story is also executed in a worthwhile way. This isn't high art. But, there aren't any fun or cheesy characters like you'd find in Predator or any of the great high-concept action/sci-fi films from the 1980's. For the most part, the characters are pretty devoid of personality. Nobody really wins us over. There aren't lines that make you laugh out alot. This could easily be fixed with a rewrite, though, because the framework is certainly there.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
X-Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)
Isla Prospects: There's a cyborg character in this film named Becca, and she's my favorite most original character in the entire thing. But, Isla would not work as a straight up action chick. So no, there are absolutely no Isla roles in this.
What I Learned: High concept can come in two ways: high concept plot and high concept premise. High concept plot is something like Splash or Big where the thrust of the movie is dictated by the premise: a man falls in love with a mermaid, a little kid is transformed into an adult. A high concept premise is something like Cast Away or Arena: a man stuck on a deserted island, an arena where various armies from throughout time fight. A high concept plot is more of a sure fire hit if it's decently written. A high concept can be decently written and still very much forgettable. That being said, I think Arena will end up doing decent box office because it's going to make for a great trailer.
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