director: Sylvester Stallone
writers: Sylvester Stallone,
starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Randy Couture
genre: Action
A film filled with all the classic action stars of the 80's, 90's and 2000's may be a dream come true. But it's also hell of a thing to control. Stallone after going back to his roots with success with Rambo and Rocky thought it would be best to make a action film with a true dream team of action stars. What he forgot on the way was the emotion of Rocky and the guts and intensity of Rambo.
The film is about a squad of mercenaries and their mission to save a island nation from a corrupt dictator. Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his crew of "Expendables" have to decide whats the point of their job if its not to also to save lives. With help from a local woman the mercenaries get deep into the corruption of the island and see that it goes further than they thought.
It's been a month now that film has come out and I believe most people have already had the chance to see the film. The most common occurrence with us all was the level of expectation. Everybody expected something huge, something extraordinary. What we got instead was a good action flick and nothing more. Stallone may have hyped the film too much do to the cast but we have to blame ourselves as well for wanting it be more than we thought.
That's not to say this film doesn't have its share of problems excluding the hype. Most prominent is the huge cast where from there came most of the troubles. When you have this many big names you have to give them big moments with big fight scenes. And that's not what happen. Especially in Jet Li's case. The man had not one big special moment in the film. He did have a fight scene with Dolph Lundgren but he wasn't showing off moves, or being ruthless. Which brings me to another complaint which is the fight choreography. Many of the fistfights seems to have too much shaky cam and very little freedom to the fighters. I'm not saying shaky cam doesn't have it's purposes but some of the fights seemed to be badly utilized. Also the lack of subplots for some characters than others didn't make sense. I don't why this film couldn't have been half and hour more with character moments so we could get into their shoes more.
But instead of yapping on about the negatives there are plenty of scenes that showcase Stallone's knowledge for action. The bunker fight is tremendous. The tension,intensity and the finishing moves are the payoff for the film and a great reason to see this film. The final fight is a natural gun fight with explosions but nonetheless satisfying. Also there is a earlier plane sequence that is hard to forget. Also you can see the cast having fun with the film and never overacting or going out-abounds. They know this film is like a tribute to them for their service as action stars.
After all the action, explosions and jokes was the Expendables worth it? Yes it was. It was fun had some very good action scenes and did a OK job at not making itself too silly for action film. Many of us could have wanted more but we will have to wait for the sequel and expect less next time to get more.
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