Angela Aug 15, 2010
Saw The Expendables last night. Our own rein calls it: "Stallone assembled the ultimate collection of over-the-hill hard guys for nothing other than a dreadfully conventional actioner."
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I imagine most people who were even remotely interested in this film had an inkling that plot would be treated as disposable baggage. There are a couple of lazy attempts at fleshing out back stories for some of these guys; a few male bonding sequences infused with macho posturing, along with a platonic damsel-in-distress relationship yanked straight out of Stallone's handbook of storytelling. But ultimately, that's all inconsequential to the big action sequences on display. And there's no sugar-coating said action; there's blades, both of the stabbing and hurling type, hand to hand combat, wrestling take-downs, heavy artillery, and explosions aplenty. The final act is a testosterone-laden dream; like 2008's Rambo before it, it all becomes a gloriously nonstop orgy of chaotic action and gratuitous violence.
The problem is, there's absolutely no sense of urgency, danger, or emotional resonance. Our heroes are all unstoppable supermen who pretty much get the job done each and every time. Hardly expendable, and not much more memorable. One other qualm I had with the action is the sped up framework. I'm not quite sure how to explain it technically, but it was the same as Rambo before it; some scenes were shot and edited in such a way that the frames appear to play out faster than the usual 24FPS. It gives the action a sort of hyper, elevated feel that comes off looking more hokey than adrenaline inducing. It's a deliberate choice in direction, but it took me out of the movie on more than one occasion.
As for the star-studded cast, it is disappointing that most of them are relegated to secondary roles of extremely varying degrees. When it comes down to it, this is ultimately Stallone's and Statham's film, with Li, Crews, and Couture acting as secondary backup. Rourke sits out of the action, and the Willis/Schwarzenegger cameo are but a few scant minutes long. But credit's given where credit's due: the former has something resembling an actor's role, while the latter made for the best tongue-in-cheek cameo in the entire movie.
Musically, Brian Tyler's just being Brian Tyler. Yet more paint-by-numbers action material and completely interchangeable with every other movie he's done. It's fine for the film, and little else.
If you're going in expecting a conventional actioner, then you may end up enjoying The Expendables. It's cinematic viewing at its most basest, and while seeing shit get beaten, torn, and blown up always manages to provide a giddy thrill, here, it's all too vapid and fleeting. Personally, I wanted a bit more out of this one.
