The Expendables 3 ~ Movie Review

Summer 2014 is a great time for the action heroes, any time is really, but Expendables 3 is the highlight I was waiting for. I honestly wonder if they sat around wishing for the good old days before just deciding to go for and gather up as many of their cronies as possible.

While any action fan worth their salt looks forward to the Summer blockbusters, Expendables is a series that seems to divide the fan base. The story lines ticks all the boxes of the 80's classics; with vehicle chases, endless gunfire that hits nothing but walls, hand to hand fisty-cuffs, muscly male bonding and slightly tacky one-liners. There in lies the exact problem for those on the flip side of the coin. We are beyond the 80's now (despite my fashion sense!) and many cinema goers demand a higher level of entertainment.

The old hats like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Swarzenegger, Jason Statham, Randy Couture and Terry Crews were the expected level of brilliance as the previous films, but Dolph Lundgren really shone through with some excellent lines. It took only 3 days for Stallone to replace Bruce Willis with Harrison Ford, great choice in my opinion (but who doesn't love Hans/ Indiana!). Wesley Snipes and Kelsey Grammer were ideal additions to the cast list Demolition Man meets Frasier; beautiful! While I respected the decision to return to the more serious nature of the first film, I really missed the laughs. Despite loving Antonio Banderas, he came across as irritating, which was brilliant acting, but left me feeling disappointed.

With the addition of the young blood and a new team, it seemed as though even our glorious heroes were for the scrapheap. Yet none of the new ones appeared to have much of a 'character' and seemed more a token bit of background plot to allow showcasing of new gadgets. They were vaguely type cast then largely ignored, which is a massive shame but I'm hopeful that the next release will boost the characters into the limelight. Victor Ortiz is the high tech acrophobic gunfighter. Glen Powell is the tech geek free climber. Ronda Rousey is the ex bouncer with great close quarters fighting abilities a great body and a slight dislike for men and outdated attack plans. Kellan Lutz the stubborn ex SEAL motor bike enthusiast with a dislike for authority, destined to be a leader. See pretty slim on the character while heavy on the stereotype.

The actual final revenge battle against Mel Gibson felt lack lustre and was too brief after all the build up, and I was left wondering if the director had gone AWOL for a couple of days filming. Perhaps the scene editing and cutting were just taken to far, but I would have preferred an extra 20 minutes rather that the rushed scene, especially when the rest of the film showed so much promise.

Personally I am delighted at being able to name all the cast, see the plot-lines coming and know the joke before its said, but who doesn't like an all star film with masses of explosions. I hope that the series continues for a long time to come with it self deprecating and jovially honest take on the classics, but it would be nice to see more of the jokes, they really made it work.  However it was made through a love of the genre and deserves respect for that alone.