Reply to Topic
When I first heard of The Expendables film back in 2009 I was excited, and what man who grew up in the 1980's and 1990's. Sylvester Stallone was making a hall of fame and all-star action film that brought together himself along with Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Gary Daniels to name a few. You had action stars from the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's all in the same film. It seemed like a good and fun idea and I thought it would be a great action film. I went to see it when it first came out and leaving the theater I was disappointed. It was at best an action film, and it suffered at The Avengers suffered from. It's a great concept to bring together larger than life action or superheroes, but once you get by the excitement of seeing all your favorite action stars or superheroes in the same film you begin to see the flaw that are plainly there to see. The Avengers had them, but nowhere near as bad as The Expendables. For that reason I when I heard that there was going to be a sequel I wasn't excited. I was interested and paid attention to the news about the film, but I wasn't going to pay ten dollars or more for what I thought was going to be an average action film at best, and after seeing The Expendables 2 recently I was right not to waste my money.
The Expendables 2 is much worse than the original. In fact after I watched the film and gave it time the worse my opinion of the film grew. The Expendables overall plot is about them trying to stop a cache of plutonium which Jean Claude Van-Damn is after. Yes I'm not even going to use their character names, because they aren't any characters in this film. I mean who cares about this men whether they live or die, or if you can understand them. Take the first opening action scene I couldn't understand a word they anyone was saying except the curse words, and maybe that's all that they were saying which also led to about a fourth of dialogue to be completely unrecognizable. Next they brought characters in and out of the film for real no reason except to show off as many action stars as possible while being detrimental to the film. For example Jet Li is a great action star, but they got rid of him with in the first ten minutes and introduced us Liam Hemsworth who I believe played Billy a sniper. On a side note Liam really needs to ask his brother Chris for some help with roles. I know he'll get more time in the sequel, but he had like two lines in The Hunger Games and he's just a throw away character that Stallone and the director Simon West try to make us care about. I mean they introduce him he shows off his ability as a sniper, talks about leaving to be with his girlfriend even though they don't we have no connection to the character or care what happens to him, and then he's killed off about ten to fifteen minutes after Li disappears from the film. Oh yes I forgot in the beginning of the film Stallone and his team go rescue some billionaire and end rescuing Arnold Schwarzenegger who is there for some convenient reason to say some funny dialogue and then vanishes. I know I know defenders of this film will say the action films are generally ridiculous and over the top, but The Expendables 2 is laughably ridiculous only in bad way. Most and good action films have a coherent plot and the viewer actually comes to care about the main character or character. The Expendables has turned into the action version of the Ocean films which is basically the same premise bringing together great actors, but studios, directors and even the stars need to realize that bringing together these stars may mean big bucks, but it doesn't mean the film will actually be good. This is turning into a long paragraph. I would talk about the acting, but honestly there is no good acting in this film. During the film Chuck Norris miraculously shows up for some convoluted and convenient reason and saves Stallone's team and then gives some reason about being a lone wolf and disappears again. There really isn't any reason to care about the story or the characters. To be honest each of these action stars films are better than The Expendables 2.
All right enough about the bad plot, non-existent characters or the ridiculous dialogue, and let's move on to the action, which is supposed to be the bread and butter of this growing franchise. I have seen a lot of good action films recently in Skyfall, El Gringo, Dredd and Looper. I know I know again defenders of this film will say action films are supposed to be over the top. Yes if it makes sense like for example the Die Hard films. Sure there was some unbelievable action scenes, but they weren't outrageously over the top like in The Expendables films. Directors and actors should know sometimes less is better than more over the top action. Having so many action stars in the film makes the scenes unmemorable and unremarkable. Stallone has plane with a cannon in its nose and he crashes it into a mine, so what and who cares. They climax is in an airport with a hundred unknown or indefinable bad guys while the good guys just shoot their guns and spout some ridiculous dialogue. The action and fight scenes have no meaning and aren't entertaining in anyway.
On paper the idea of the Ocean and The Expendables films is a good idea, but as it's put together things quickly fall apart with too many characters to care about, an average to bad plot, bad dialogue and average to bad action or drama, and that is what both of these franchised suffered from and to a lesser extend The Avengers. Like I said once you get over the excitement of seeing all these famous actors, action stars or superheroes together you see the flaws in the film. Overall The Expendables 2 is a bad action film which has limited value in seeing all these action stars together and a few funny lines.
1.5 out 5 stars
The Expendables 2 is much worse than the original. In fact after I watched the film and gave it time the worse my opinion of the film grew. The Expendables overall plot is about them trying to stop a cache of plutonium which Jean Claude Van-Damn is after. Yes I'm not even going to use their character names, because they aren't any characters in this film. I mean who cares about this men whether they live or die, or if you can understand them. Take the first opening action scene I couldn't understand a word they anyone was saying except the curse words, and maybe that's all that they were saying which also led to about a fourth of dialogue to be completely unrecognizable. Next they brought characters in and out of the film for real no reason except to show off as many action stars as possible while being detrimental to the film. For example Jet Li is a great action star, but they got rid of him with in the first ten minutes and introduced us Liam Hemsworth who I believe played Billy a sniper. On a side note Liam really needs to ask his brother Chris for some help with roles. I know he'll get more time in the sequel, but he had like two lines in The Hunger Games and he's just a throw away character that Stallone and the director Simon West try to make us care about. I mean they introduce him he shows off his ability as a sniper, talks about leaving to be with his girlfriend even though they don't we have no connection to the character or care what happens to him, and then he's killed off about ten to fifteen minutes after Li disappears from the film. Oh yes I forgot in the beginning of the film Stallone and his team go rescue some billionaire and end rescuing Arnold Schwarzenegger who is there for some convenient reason to say some funny dialogue and then vanishes. I know I know defenders of this film will say the action films are generally ridiculous and over the top, but The Expendables 2 is laughably ridiculous only in bad way. Most and good action films have a coherent plot and the viewer actually comes to care about the main character or character. The Expendables has turned into the action version of the Ocean films which is basically the same premise bringing together great actors, but studios, directors and even the stars need to realize that bringing together these stars may mean big bucks, but it doesn't mean the film will actually be good. This is turning into a long paragraph. I would talk about the acting, but honestly there is no good acting in this film. During the film Chuck Norris miraculously shows up for some convoluted and convenient reason and saves Stallone's team and then gives some reason about being a lone wolf and disappears again. There really isn't any reason to care about the story or the characters. To be honest each of these action stars films are better than The Expendables 2.
All right enough about the bad plot, non-existent characters or the ridiculous dialogue, and let's move on to the action, which is supposed to be the bread and butter of this growing franchise. I have seen a lot of good action films recently in Skyfall, El Gringo, Dredd and Looper. I know I know again defenders of this film will say action films are supposed to be over the top. Yes if it makes sense like for example the Die Hard films. Sure there was some unbelievable action scenes, but they weren't outrageously over the top like in The Expendables films. Directors and actors should know sometimes less is better than more over the top action. Having so many action stars in the film makes the scenes unmemorable and unremarkable. Stallone has plane with a cannon in its nose and he crashes it into a mine, so what and who cares. They climax is in an airport with a hundred unknown or indefinable bad guys while the good guys just shoot their guns and spout some ridiculous dialogue. The action and fight scenes have no meaning and aren't entertaining in anyway.
On paper the idea of the Ocean and The Expendables films is a good idea, but as it's put together things quickly fall apart with too many characters to care about, an average to bad plot, bad dialogue and average to bad action or drama, and that is what both of these franchised suffered from and to a lesser extend The Avengers. Like I said once you get over the excitement of seeing all these famous actors, action stars or superheroes together you see the flaws in the film. Overall The Expendables 2 is a bad action film which has limited value in seeing all these action stars together and a few funny lines.
1.5 out 5 stars
