The Expendables 2

By Caleb King

The Expendables 2 The expendable 2 is the sequels to the 2010 film the expendables. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger one would think that the expendables would be high adrenalin action from beginning to end with a thread bare story to tie it together, and they would be right.

While I personally enjoyed The Expendables I couldn’t help but notice that it felt familiar. The movie really didn’t introduce anything new, but that is not to say that the movie was stale. The core of the film was to be an action movie and I feel that it was accomplished many times over. While the action was spectacular the story was, as stated early, bare. The complex twist and turns that allow other movies to keep you on your toes was not present. The story was overly straightforward and blunt. The villain (Jean-Claude Van) stated his every intention for his plans and telegraphed his every action.
While the story was far from phenomenal I was surprised by the character development. If you had watched the first movie you may have noticed the minor hostilities that Stallone, Willis, and Schwarzenegger had for one another in the church seen, yet in the sequel not only did the three Willing work together they went out of there way to save each other, this along with one character’s view of the deeper meaning of his meal and one character’s surprising M.I.T degree showed that the writers really wanted to show a more human side to their characters.
The humor mostly relies on allusions to the actors others movies. With three “I’ll be back” references, a Yippy-KY-eh and a Chuck Norris joke the film is not afraid to poke fun at the actors including remarks about the age of the actors. Though these are small remarks are funny trying to rely all humor on these is simply not enough for the two hour movie and this is clear even to the writers as they recycle old gags from the first movie.
Though the movie has lacking in story and humor, I do believe it accomplished what it set out to do make a great action movie. With that in mind I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves action movies or remembers these actors from the 80’s and 90’s.