The Expendables, a total sucker punch

For all the action stars The Expendables had in it, it’s too bad they couldn’t figure out how to use all of them properly. To say I was a little disappointed in the movie that could have been - should have been - the ultimate action movie, would be an understatement.

Action fans want action

You’ve seen the cast list and you’ve probably seen most of the movies they’ve all been in, but if you were expecting to see any of them use their talents in The Expendables, then you too will be a little let down.

It is a great cast, too bad they weren't used at all

I’m not going to talk about the plot, safe to say there is one, sorta, but that’s really not why anyone is going to see this movie. Fans like me are going to see this movie because they want non-stop movie action like they’ve never seen before. Instead, I’m going to talk about what this movie should have been. And it should have been awesome.

There really are no excuses

This movie failed to exploit any of the talent they had. You’ve seen Jet Li’s movies and you know he can support an entire movie by himself with his kung fu. Despite being a top billed actor in The Expendables, he’s given less than 10 minutes to show off his fighting. And worse, what little fight time he is given is poorly shot, not letting you enjoy any of it.

All in all, the biggest crime in this film is poor action editing. It’s something we as Americans are somewhat used to, but this is not a movie that needed fast cuts and quick edits. Action movies need room to show off what’s happening. Keeping a quick pace is important for an action movie, but you don’t want to short change the action itself. And honestly, this movie suffered from a very slow pace to start off, things didn’t get real watch-able until the last 30 minutes.

And lets talk Doplh. You probably last saw Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV as the near-unstoppable Russian, Ivan Drago. Well, in The Expendables he is everything but unstoppable. In fact, he’s completely worthless. His character is a complete throw away that serves no purpose whatsoever. He doesn’t progress the plot and he barely fights. This man is huge, hulking, blonde, and angry looking…why isn’t he a major player?

One other missed step in this film is lighting. Lighting is important to a movie. Light lets you see things. Unfortunately, light is pretty much absent from this movie. So in actuality, there might have been some worth while action in this movie, but it all happened in the dark, making it incredibly lack luster and not really worth it. Why can’t we fight and kill people in the day time?

The real star of this movie is Jason Statham. He’s number two in this film only behind Stallone, but while Stallone has super top billing and most of the screen time, Statham delivers his standard action fare and doesn’t disappoint. His character in particular uses knives as his weapon of choice and the action there is rather good.

I don’t want to make sound like this film is void of action, it has plenty, and it gives you some decent “ridiculous killing” moments that include guns, explosions, but it just isn’t enough. The best combat in the film is awarded to Randy Couture and Steve Austin. Their fight, albeit in the dark, is done well and results in a proper outcome. But for all the fight stars in this movie, there just needed to be more…more, more, more!

An impressive sight but you barely see this in the film

Rent it, don’t buy it

I was lucky enough to see this movie for free. Had I paid full ticket price for this movie I would have been even more disappointed. Maybe this movie didn’t have a chance to live up to the hype, but I honestly believe it could have. Everyone in this film is capable of top notch action and it’s just sad to see them not get to do what they do well.

All we can hope for is The Expendables 2 that explores one of the other characters other than Stallone, and maybe they can turn up the action a few levels. There’s enough of a seed here that The Expendables could end up as a franchise, swapping out action stars each time and focusing on different fight styles in each…but I think that might be hoping to too much.

I wanted this movie to be awesome, I really did. I think all the action fans did. I didn’t want to dislike this movie, but it just isn’t worth the time or trouble…even on DVD.