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Expendables 3 (Patrick Hughes)
It was surprisingly a fun ride.
On yet another routine mission, the Expendables stumble upon an old friend, Stonebanks, one of the original members of the crew and now, a vicious war lord. Can Barney look past the revenge and get the job done, or will it consume him until it's too late?
The Expendables 3 throws a lot at you and for the most part, it sticks. It follows the same formula as the previous films: open up with a big action set piece, introduce the problem, get the team together, suffer some form of defeat, band the team together again and shoot the hell out of everyone until the finish. What this film does better, is give the new members something to do and deliver on the action. The final sequence in this film alone warrants a watch in my books as it's the best action the series has delivered yet.
Just like last time...this time it's personal. I know, they seem to be running out of ideas, but this series never cared for realism, story or plot. The sole purpose was to give the old stars of the 80's one last hurrah. Well, it caught on and they seem to have enough fuel left in their engines to keep up with the young kids these days. This entry balances both old and new. We have an even bigger Expendables team, with the introduction of Wesley Snipes's Doc, a knife wielding sarcastic medic and Antonio Banderas' Galgo, a guy who desperately needs to be in the action and never shuts up about it. Both are given ample amount of screen time to justify adding them, with Banderas stealing the show in every scene he's in. Without a doubt, he is the stand out character this time round. Harrison Ford basically replaces Bruce Willis, he literally says Willis is out of the picture. Just one of many...MANY winks and nods to the camera about the outside world (snipes has a great one in the beginning and Arnold closes it with a classic Predator line).
But what about the original members who've been with the series since the beginning? Well, they do get left behind, literally at some point. Yet the film never feels like it abandons them. They still have some of the best scenes and make the third act what it is. Poor Terry Crews is giving the least amount to do though, I won't spoil why. Both Jet Li and Schwarzenegger have small cameos as well as Kelsey Grammar. Each have their comedic moments in a film with a lot of laughs. The new kids include Kellan Lutz (Twilight), Ronda Rousey (UFC Fighter), Victor Ortiz (Boxer) and Glen Powell (Small Roles). They all have their charm and "abilities" although I feel Ortiz got the short straw and is showcased very little. Finally we come to the man himself, Mel Gibson, as the villain. He has a few scene chewing sequences that he seems to have fun with, and is withoutadoubt the scariest villain in the series, but he needed a bit more to do. JCVD was showcased quiet a bit in the the second film, as was his right hand man Scott Adkins, but very little time is spent with Gibson. You never feel the emotional relevance of this character to the group. Maybe a flashback might have helped flesh out his significance better, but instead we are given just some dialogue and then we move on. The performance is there, the character is not. This leads up to a final fight between Stallone and Gibson, much like the second film and just like that one it falls a bit too short. All this build up and we get a lackluster final fight.
The Expendables is a lot more fun than the series should have been. The second film and now this one, learned from the mistakes of the first. These films are suppose to be fun and thankfully this one is. The Expendables vs the Army at the end is some of the best action sequences of this year.The film does have some really bad CGI though, stuff you would expect out of a Roger Corman SYFY MEGASHARK film. With that aside, this film is a great addition and a nice send off....hopefully.
It was surprisingly a fun ride.
On yet another routine mission, the Expendables stumble upon an old friend, Stonebanks, one of the original members of the crew and now, a vicious war lord. Can Barney look past the revenge and get the job done, or will it consume him until it's too late?
The Expendables 3 throws a lot at you and for the most part, it sticks. It follows the same formula as the previous films: open up with a big action set piece, introduce the problem, get the team together, suffer some form of defeat, band the team together again and shoot the hell out of everyone until the finish. What this film does better, is give the new members something to do and deliver on the action. The final sequence in this film alone warrants a watch in my books as it's the best action the series has delivered yet.
Just like last time...this time it's personal. I know, they seem to be running out of ideas, but this series never cared for realism, story or plot. The sole purpose was to give the old stars of the 80's one last hurrah. Well, it caught on and they seem to have enough fuel left in their engines to keep up with the young kids these days. This entry balances both old and new. We have an even bigger Expendables team, with the introduction of Wesley Snipes's Doc, a knife wielding sarcastic medic and Antonio Banderas' Galgo, a guy who desperately needs to be in the action and never shuts up about it. Both are given ample amount of screen time to justify adding them, with Banderas stealing the show in every scene he's in. Without a doubt, he is the stand out character this time round. Harrison Ford basically replaces Bruce Willis, he literally says Willis is out of the picture. Just one of many...MANY winks and nods to the camera about the outside world (snipes has a great one in the beginning and Arnold closes it with a classic Predator line).
But what about the original members who've been with the series since the beginning? Well, they do get left behind, literally at some point. Yet the film never feels like it abandons them. They still have some of the best scenes and make the third act what it is. Poor Terry Crews is giving the least amount to do though, I won't spoil why. Both Jet Li and Schwarzenegger have small cameos as well as Kelsey Grammar. Each have their comedic moments in a film with a lot of laughs. The new kids include Kellan Lutz (Twilight), Ronda Rousey (UFC Fighter), Victor Ortiz (Boxer) and Glen Powell (Small Roles). They all have their charm and "abilities" although I feel Ortiz got the short straw and is showcased very little. Finally we come to the man himself, Mel Gibson, as the villain. He has a few scene chewing sequences that he seems to have fun with, and is withoutadoubt the scariest villain in the series, but he needed a bit more to do. JCVD was showcased quiet a bit in the the second film, as was his right hand man Scott Adkins, but very little time is spent with Gibson. You never feel the emotional relevance of this character to the group. Maybe a flashback might have helped flesh out his significance better, but instead we are given just some dialogue and then we move on. The performance is there, the character is not. This leads up to a final fight between Stallone and Gibson, much like the second film and just like that one it falls a bit too short. All this build up and we get a lackluster final fight.
The Expendables is a lot more fun than the series should have been. The second film and now this one, learned from the mistakes of the first. These films are suppose to be fun and thankfully this one is. The Expendables vs the Army at the end is some of the best action sequences of this year.The film does have some really bad CGI though, stuff you would expect out of a Roger Corman SYFY MEGASHARK film. With that aside, this film is a great addition and a nice send off....hopefully.