Movie Review: The Expendables

If I had to summarize my feelings about the film in one word: Disappointing.

For a movie that had so much promise, it really came up short. As an action film is was mediocre. The plot was a little too general and had too many things pulling it in different directions to be truly coherent. There was also no real "bad guy". There were guys who were bad, but no real antagonist. The main bad guys in the film are an ex-CIA agent who is using a General-turned-Dictator to continue to grow cocaine on a small island in the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, and the agent's body guard (played by 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin).

Stalone and company are mercenaries hired to take out the general and through the general the rogue CIA agent. This sounds simple enough and the movie could have spent a good deal of time discussing the build up to the mission, planning, personal issues with the mission as a vehicle into personal issues with life in general. Instead the movie isn't about a job, but Stalone deciding to rescue the team's contact on the island by himself...but his friends won't let him do it alone so they come alone also. It is an attempt to humanize the characters, but in the end it becomes about a girl and not something bigger like freeing the people or finishing the job for the job's sake. Not that a girl isn't worth an action movie, but it weakened the plot from being a team effort to being about everyone preventing the boss from killing himself on a suicide mission.

There were some action movie things that were done well. The movie respected the fact that it is possible to run out of ammo, which was played up in one particular pistol-rapid-reload scene. Additionally, the fighting used a considerable amount of wrestling moves which was visually more interesting than the normal close-quarters combat seen in movie like the Bourne Trilogy.

Over all, I have to give the move a C-. Ultimately, the dialog was as to be expected, but the plot was tugged in too many directions, the action wasn't over the top enough for the talent of actors involved, and I should not leave a 100 minute film feeling like it was only an hour long and wanting more.