The greatest action stars from the 20th Century are back! And this time, they're doing the exact same thing. Again! Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) leads his crew to track down a dangerous arms dealer (Mel Gibson) before he does something arms-y!
Fans of this franchise and that era of action movies will probably enjoy this story no matter what"¦ probably. The filmmakers could put up a piece of toast on screen and as long as Terry Crews' pecs are gyrating in the middle of the bread, fans will be hungry for The Expendables 17 in 2016.
In this movie, there is a sea of new faces along with a river of more old Hollywood ones. The big names add a little bit of weight to the story since many of them are charismatic, but it doesn't take the movie into another level. Even action movie buffs may become bored because this movie actually tries to"” (gasp in shock) "”tell a story!
It tries to develop characters with arcs and issues, but it has way too many characters to keep track of (or really care for). The pacing drags and was super tedious for me to sit through. I had to pretend I was helping Stallone shoot up the bad guys just to keep things interesting.
Sure, it knows it's a popcorn movie, but it would be better if the filmmakers made this into a comedy like Tropic Thunder. You can still get all the explosions you want (even though the CGI looks super fake), but it would make more money if it stopped taking itself so seriously. And that's what makes a franchise like this so dispensable. And when that happens, who do you call?
