It is shallow even by action blockbuster standards, but The Expendables 2 is well executed schlock and contagiously fun.
Except for Mickey Rourke, all of the original Expendables—Sylvester Stallone (who also wrote the picture), Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crews, and Rany Couture—return (along with Liam Hemsworth), opening the movie by decimating a Nepale terrorist fort with only hand held weapons and Bad Attitude, a truck coated with makeshift steel plates and a battering ram. The battle is chaotic with shakycam, tons of gore, ridiculously loud noises, and humorous foley effects (the sound of an Expendable punching a foe is louder than the sound of their assault rifles). This silly, action-packed pacing relentlessly continues for the rest of the film. Bruce Willis as a shadowy government figure sends them to retrieve a map locating five tons of plutonium; the mission goes sour when they are ambushed by a band of mercenaries lead by a Jean Claud Van Damme bad guy named Jean Vilain. After Li literally parachutes to China and out of the storyline, the Expendables must team up with Nan Yu, Chuck Norris, and Arnold Schwarzenegger to take down the evil assassins and chaos ensues.
I am purposefully calling each Expendable by their actor’s name because that is what this movie is all about. The characters are written after the actors are signed on and their personalities are taken straight from the personas of the guys who play them. Dolph Lundgren’s Expendable is a gruff thug who went to MIT; Norris’s action hero is a cowboy themed tough guy who is considered a “lone wolf.” Entire scenes are built around working in lines from the stars’ most famous pictures.
The story is thin—very thin. For example, the “character development” amounts to Liam Hemsworth telling a story about being a soldier watching a puppy die and Sylvester Stallone saying he doesn’t like working with girls because he feels responsible when they die (it isn’t even meant to be sexist). Still, this all-action all-the-time approach means there isn’t really a chance to come out with a theme that could really offend someone, a la The A-Team (because of course we went to The A-Team to hear political commentary on the war on terror). And the visuals, character intros, humor, and acting (Stallone did win an Oscar) are a cut above what you see in most blockbusters. (and noticeably superior to the original).
Cantankerous film snobs will complain about the shallow plot and the over-the-top dialogue and visuals. But honestly, did anyone go to The Expendables for good story-telling and gritty war scenes? As a violent, 90-munite in-joke to fans of the 80s and 90s action flicks, this ultimate action ensemble is a dream come true.
