'Weakest of the Series But Passable, Just'
A film that was built on the premise of a bunch of old fogeys coming together to defeat the villains is shelved in favour of new blood. A throwback to the 1980s action films, Expendables 3 is somewhat watchable but substandard at best. The premise is the same one as the first two films with notable action stars of yesteryear as the good guys squaring off against an antagonist who tends to be a B-list actor or one that has fallen off the map, to match. The second Expendables movie was bigger than the first and the furthest it had went with the series.
The film opens up with the Expendables team meeting up with another crew member (Terry Crews) to intercept an arms dealer, who turns out to be a former comrade in Conrad Stonebanks, whom Barney finds out is not dead. When Stonebanks kills Barney's teammates, Barney seeks revenge. Admitting that the current Expendables team is no more, he walks away and the team disbands. Barney heads off to Las Vegas and meets a recruitment expert (Kelsey Grammer) to seek some new fresh blood.
Antonio Banderas and Kelsey Grammer divided audiences with their cameos with some questioning his appearance here (the latter plays the role of a talent scout, the former as a motormouth, Galgo, who comes across as the human form of Puss in Boots from the Shrek franchise). At this point in his career, Banderas had starred or appeared in straight-to-DVD action fare, though I'm assuming the director opted for him because of the Desperado and the Zorro movies. Jet Li was nowhere to be found, but to see him stand alongside Arnie without a single punch or kick, is disappointing. Dolph Lundgren has 1 or 2 scenes where he kills the bad guys & utters a few lines, but that is mainly it. Harrison Ford only had a little to do but say a few lines and fly a plane. Wesley Snipes was long overdue perhaps but he was, alight. He was not bad but not great: he starred opposite Sly Stallone in Demolition Man in 1993 - by far and large the much superior action flick to this effort, which came out 21 years prior. Mel Gibson is Conrad Stonebanks; after making the headlines the previous decade for all the wrong reasons in real life, he revelled in his tarnished public image by taking on the role of the film's main adversary.
It's not a great film; it repeats the same formula, the same narrative without a major spark. But the new blood tries their best; I thought the story could have benefited from having the young guys working with the old guard more often onscreen. The recruits, comprised of MMA fighters- then WWE's Ronda Rousey, pro-boxer Victor Ortiz and Twilight's Kellan Lutz, didn't make that much of an impression to the extent that they were memorable - though it didn't help that they were marginalised and left hanging for much of the story. Given most of the recognizable name-list performers, it should have amounted to a lot more fun. The PG-13 rating didn't affect my enjoyment of this movie.
Expendables 3, however, lacked the gritty energy and appeal that the first two films, but especially the first one had. Aside from the new characters, everything else seemed to be the case of 'been there, done that'. Action-wise, all the scenes were reduced to the camera cutting away when someone got killed. The film tried to be bolder, but, in reality, with the generic and at times run-down action sequences, there wasn't much that was new. By bringing in new and exciting elements this would have given the story (in the hands of 3 different writers), which seemed to be predictable, more impetus and presence that it had desperately lacked.
The third film could have done with action stars such as Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, and Billy Blanks all getting in on the act as well, probably in place of the younger Expendables tier. If only Stallone went out of his way to get them to appear.
Some of the dialogue is bad (case in point Wesley Snipes: 'I was knifing people when you were still sucking on your daddie's titties, figuring out how to use a spoon'), but if you can bypass that, then it won't be much of a problem sitting through the rest of Expendables 3.
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Final Verdict:
The third time without the charm, it was underwhelming, yet still, I sat through the experience and it was watchable. Unambitious when it tries to be overly and inordinately ambitious and to be bigger and better, Expendables 3 is notably bigger, a hyperbole, but that doesn't make it better.
No doubt it will satisfy the cravings of action movie junkies. It is still dense, unfocused and ho-hum, to be honest, but remains solid at best. You just need to set the bar of expectations not too low.
Overall: 6.5
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