I sat down last night and watched Expendables 4. My opinions are… mixed?

As an action film, it’s pretty good. A group of mercenaries have to stop the big bad guy from being an idiot and setting off a nuclear bomb in Russian waters in the name of ‘America’ because, for some reason, he wants to start World War Three (Money, I guess?)

As an Expendables film? It completely missed the mark.

What I loved about the first two Expendables films was they were a homage to action films of years-gone-by. It was a film that pulled at the nostalgia strings of 80’s/90’s action movie lovers, bringing all the ‘old boys’ back around for one last hurrah! There were cameo appearances, there were dodgy one-liners and actors who hadn’t been seen since the dark ages! The action was explosive, over the top and honestly, pretty good fun.

Expend4bles got a couple of these things right, there were dodgy one-liners and the action was explosive – well, more stabby with gore splatters – but the essence of it was there. Just not the heart. Nor was the amusing banter between the characters, just recycling of old jokes that were boring, rather than funny. Cauliflower, anyone?

Somewhere along the line, this franchise lost its way. I’m looking at you Expendables 3. Where the nostalgia factor retreated in lieu of taking itself a bit too seriously, trying to become something it isn’t and calling in a wave of new characters – of which none appear in the latest instalment. I was hoping that Expendables 4 would have learned from its past mistakes and added a bit more of the older flavour with it. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

[SPOILER ALERT]

The big appeal of these films for me is Stallone himself. He’s the glue that holds the whole franchise together. And, he was barely in it. I know the guy is getting older and action-films might not be a good idea when you\’re older than the dinosaurs, but killing off your central character?

Only to then cheapen their death by swooping in to save the day at the end?

I dunno, it made sense from a plot point of view, but it felt really tacky and made for an unsatisfying watching experience.

But, it does back up the age-old saying; “Action heroes never die, they just re-load.”

 

So, this was less of an Expendables film and more of a Jason Statham film? Which is fine. I guess? I just wonder what went so horribly wrong between the films. What happened to all the new recruits from the third film? I guess the film lost all sense of Star Power that it once had and without it, suffered. Greatly.

There were some aspects to the film that could have been better executed too.
There is a ‘handbrake turn’ using an anchor in a ship. Battleships did it better (which is saying something!)
There was a dubious fight/romance scene between Christmas and Megan Fox’s character, which Mr and Mrs Smith did better.
And, these are just the things that I noticed. I dunno, it was entertaining enough, but, overall, just, lacking somehow.

The blossoming romance between new character Lash and ‘Toll Road’ was entertaining. Actually, Lash was pretty good in her action scene too, which was great to see. Nice to see someone using something other than a knife in this film franchise!

Summary

I am disheartened by this film, pleased to have seen it and been able to put it behind me as an experience. The lack of star roles, banter and everything that makes an Expendables film was lacking.
But the action scenes were good. Ish?