The Expendables 2
- (August 17th, 2012): PG-13
Distributor: Lionsgate
Opening Weekend Box Office:
#1 with $28,591,370
Domestic Box Office
Gross to-date: $68,559,000
Gross Revenue: $135,059,000
Production Budget:
$100 million
Director: Simon West
From a marketing perspective, given
the success of the original Expendables
film and the sheer volume of iconic action stars present in the sequel, it wasn’t
going to be all that difficult for Lionsgate to sell audiences on the final
action film of the summer. If you’ve enjoyed
a violent action blockbuster anytime in the past thirty years, chances are that
you are a fan of at least one member of this featured group of weathered
mercenaries, but you have to give the producers credit for trying to expand the
appeal of this film beyond the traditional action-junkie demographic. The inclusion of actress Yu Nan as the first
female expendable and rising star Liam Hemsworth as the newest team member can
arguably be seen as attempts to draw at least some interest from female
audience members, but no one would ever make the mistake of claiming that The Expendables 2 was anything more than
a guy movie…and let’s face it, after Magic
Mike, women can no longer downplay action films by claiming that Hollywood
never offers anything exclusively for them.
For me, the single best part of the original Expendables involved the scene where Stallone, Willis, and Schwarzenegger
poked fun at each other, so with the promise that there would be plenty of
self-referential and self-depreciating humor alongside the expected gratuitous
violence, I really didn’t concern myself with the delusion that this newest
summer film would offer anything truly deep.
Instead, armed with some promotional dog tags that I picked up at
Comic-Con, I was prepared for some mindless fun at the theater brought on by
the familiar faces that over the years, have taught me everything I have ever
needed to know about the action genre.
The
Expendables 2 opens in truly spectacular fashion with the iconic
mercenaries making mince-meat of terrorists while rescuing a Chinese
businessman in Nepal and simultaneously freeing captured mercenary Trench
(Arnold Schwarzenegger); after the successful mission, combat specialist Yin
Yang (Jet Li) parts with the group to escort the hostage back to China. After returning to New York, team leader
Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) is approached by CIA operative Mr. Church
(Bruce Willis), who hires Ross and his team to retrieve a classified item in Albania
with the help of technical expert Maggie Chan (Yu Nan). Though The Expendables are initially
successful in their mission, they are ambushed by international arms dealer
Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who steals the item and coldly murders new
team sniper Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth); burying their comrade, the heroic mercenaries
swear to hunt down the criminal and enact revenge. It is soon revealed that Vilain and his
organization stole a computer from the team that contains the blueprints to a
refined plutonium mine, and that they have uncovered more than five tons of the
radioactive material that they intend to sell on the black market. Content with punishing Vilain and saving the
world as an added bonus, Ross works with Trench, Church, knives specialist Lee
Christmas (Jason Statham), heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar (Terry Crews),
demolitions expert Toll Road (Toll Road), troubled Gunnar Jensen (Dolph
Lundgren), and old friend Booker (Chuck Norris); all in an effort to cut a
violent, bloody, and bullet-laced path to the world’s newest enemy.
As one would reasonably expect, the
single greatest component of The
Expendables 2 is the incessant, gratuitous, and largely overblown violence,
which is nothing short of awesome.
Whether it involves Jason Statham cutting down half a dozen men while
dressed as a monk and wielding a ceremonial thurible, Terry Crews decimating
enemies with an automatic shotgun, or Chuck Norris single-handedly destroying a
tank, there is more than enough adrenaline and testosterone present to
compensate for shortcomings in storytelling and dialogue. While the narrative offers even less
character development than the 2010 original, that does not change the fact
that the film still delivers truly entertaining personalities, with Jean-Claude
Van Damme topping the list as the perfect type of megalomaniac psychopath. The simple truth is that this action film
doesn’t make the mistake of trying to offer a deeper message; the cast poke fun
at each other, make reference to each of their respective franchises, and fully
acknowledge the ridiculous nature of some of the feats that are performed
onscreen…even Chuck Norris delivers one of his “Chuck Norris facts.” The end result is an insanely entertaining
action film that delivers both thrills and laughs, thereby satisfying anyone
looking to fill their quota of on-screen manliness for the next decade.
While The Expendables 2 is undoubtedly an improvement over its
predecessor, there are still a few blatant shortcomings that really didn’t have
to occur, even within a film that nobody should make the mistake of taking too
seriously. Like I mentioned in the “Short
and Sweet” review, the biggest failure within this sequel is the misuse of Jet
Li, the martial arts icon who only takes part in a single action sequence;
sure, the script tries to explain away his absence, but with coherent
storytelling already on shaky ground, filmmakers really should have tried harder
to get one of the top-billers to stay around for a few more scenes. And, while Simon West certainly demonstrated
a better understanding of action film directing than Stallone did in the
original, his efforts were weakened by poor choices in cinematography. For the life of me, I cannot understand
Hollywood’s obsession with grainy camera filters…it may work in certain
dramatic works to help convey pathos, but it really has no place in an action
film that is supposed to maintain high levels of energy; just look at the
damage it did in January’s Contraband. Still, at their worst, these shortcomings
remain little more than distractions and shouldn’t take away from the overall enjoyment
that gratuitous violence so often provides.
Now, box office revenue usually
takes a bit of a dip when August starts winding down, so even though a $28
million opening may not be the kind of numbers one would expect from a new
summer blockbuster, it was still enough to topple competitors like ParaNorman, Sparkle, and The Odd Life of
Timothy Green. Critical reaction
wasn’t exactly going through the roof in relation to overall quality, but
positive word of mouth and the undeniable large amount of star power present still
helped The Expendables 2 crush weak
newcomers like Premium Rush and The Apparition during the action
powerhouse’s second weekend. Add-in
foreign receipts and the newest entry in Stallone’s star-studded franchise has
pulled-in over $135 million, enough to cover the hefty production budget and
keep hopes for a sequel alive. Rumor has
it that Stallone is already planning to include John Travolta, Nicolas Cage,
and even Wesley Snipes, in the third chapter, which will supposedly take a few
pages from the science-fiction handbook.
So, in the end, regardless of the fact that a few of the faces within The Expendables 2 have definitely seen
better days, the franchise still entertains and is a moneymaker, so it is
highly likely that we will see these violent and emotionally unstable
characters again, and I cannot wait.
Overall Recommendation: High
