JoeB131 Hey, flailing writers of movies, know how to make a good Sci-Fi movie. Just take a genre, and re-write it as a space movie.This is a better film that it deserves to be in that it stole a bunch of Clichés from fight movies, and it was made in Italy (almost never a good sign when everyone in the closing credits has a name that ends in the letter "i". ) So what are its good points? Well, it has three actors known for their roles in good Science FIction. Claudia Christian from Babylon 5, and Marc Alaimo and Armin Shimmerman from Star Trek:Deep Space Nine. They take what could be cardboard characters and breathe some life into them.The special effects are vintage pre-CGI, and some of the creature effects look good, others look kind of hokey.So not Shakespeare or even Star Wars, but frankly, I found more sympathy for these characters than any of the people standing in front of Green Screens in the Phantom Menace wondering what their motivation was...

David Powell Yes, one could argue it looks a bit cheesy today, but hey, I like the 80s atmosphere, & one neat thing about this movie is the cast.If you are a Sci-Fi buff you'll find yourself going "No way!" a lot as you meet the actors playing these characters. A lot of the main cast ended up on other space stations a couple of years after they made this movie, namely Babylon Five and Deep Space Nine. In that way it has a bit of a neat "When Worlds Collide" vibe for the TV Speculative Fiction buff. Claudia Christian eventually became a regular on B5, and Shari Shattuck made a stopover there too. Both Armin Shimmerman and Marc Alaimo ended up doing yeoman service on DS9, Shimmerman as a regular and Alaimo as a recurring guest. It is neat to see them all together in this one a couple of years before they hit those series roles, and they and the rest of the cast seem to be having fun with it too.

buchass "Arena" its an awful film. Its stupid, incoherent and boriiiinnnggg... The lack of money is obvious. The main characters are ridiculous, a Californian surfer look a like and his friend kind of Bilbo Baggins... well, they are just terrible. The arena scenes are dull, very dull believe me...Its a soulless sci-fi ultra low budget film. The script and the acting its just for the laughs, the special effects are just awful, i think the only thing credible in the film, are the aliens faces. If your are a really, i repeat, a really sci-fi fan, you might like this film, but if you are not, don't waste your time. An episode of "Babylon Five" its much better then the entire "Arena".

Aaron1375 This movie is sort of like "Robot Jox" in that it has a tournament. It isn't like it, in that it is fights between aliens. The alien in this case being a rare human ready to become the first human champ in some time. All the standards are here for this type of movie with a villain, betrayal and all that good stuff that make movies of this type so predictable. It does not help that the fights are lacking any real punch as they are nothing like the high energy fights you get in an anime or any Jackie Chan movie. Still though you have loads of alien creatures to look at and some attractive female leads. That, however, does not a movie make so for the most part it is a by the numbers sports movie with an alien twist.