The Expendables 2 (2012) - Retrospective Review

Director: Simon West

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jean Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, Chuck Norris

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 103 min

The Expendables 2 is a fun but albeit flawed sequel to the equally flawed but noticeably more serious The Expendables. Stripped of the previous film's bleak tone and character driven nature, The Expendables is an all out action and cameo fest with little attention to character or common sense. The sequel does exactly what one expects from a sequel to such a franchise: amp up the stakes, deliver bigger set pieces, and introduce more action icons. However, the film's quality takes a hit due to such things. Even though the film's action scenes and stars are bigger and more plentiful, that doesn't necessarily mean that the sequel is a better film. 

With Stallone no longer at the helm of the director's chair, The Expendables 2 is a noticeably lighter affair that aims purely for action and nothing more. If the first film was made mostly for die hard action fans, than the sequel is made exclusively for action fans, as non-action fans and esteemed critics alike will find nothing to enjoy here. If Stallone, Statham, and Schwarzenegger aren't your buddies, than this is not the film for you. Action fans will be pleased to discover that the sequel features a stronger duo of villains and nearly triple the body count in exactly the same run time. 

The boys are back and ready to kick more ass.

The Expendables 2 opens with an insanely long and ridiculous action scene that trumps the finale of first film within minutes. One can immediately sense the difference between this film and its predecessor as characters crack jokes as they gun down nameless henchmen. After the Expendables survive said mission and head home, Barney is confronted by a very pissed Church (Bruce Willis) who is upset over the events of the first film. Church is frustrated that Barney and friends destroyed half of Vilena in the process of eliminating James Munroe. Therefore, Church tells Barney that he must retrieve a computer device from a downed plane in Albania or else he and the entire team are going to jail. Church also appoints an advisor, Maggie Chan (Yu Nan), to the team. After successfully retrieving the computer device, the mission goes from sour to worse when the mysterious Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) murders one of the Expendables and steals the device. Barney's simple retrieval mission quickly turns into a full blown quest for revenge as the Expendables team up with several old and new faces to take down Vilain.

The cracks in the Expendables franchise appear within minutes of sequel's start as the jokes and cameos come quicker than ever before. It's clear that with Stallone no longer directing, the Expendables franchise has more or less turned into a pure action fest, plain and simple. The bleak tone and mournful nature of Stallone's somewhat mature original is completely absent in this picture. Viewers are instead treated to a ridiculous amount of self referential comedy and lame humor that will only get a kick out of the dads in the audience. Here are some lines from The Expendables 2 that make me cringe in my seat:

"Fine, but if I don't get this back, your ass is terminated!" - Crews to Schwarzenegger

"Now that's what I call Chinese takeout!" - Statham to Jet Li parachuting out of plane

"I could really go for some Chinese food." - Lundgren to Nan

"After five hours of excruciating pain, the cobra died." - Norris literally making a Chuck Norris joke

"I now pronounce you, man and knife." - Statham as he throws a knife into a guy

"You've been back enough, I'll be back." - Willis to Schwarzenegger

"Yippe Ki-Yay." - Schwarzenegger to Willis

"Who's next, Rambo?" - Schwarzenegger to Norris

These are truly some of the worst lines of dialog that I have ever heard in a feature film. The biggest problem with cracking jokes like these during action sequences is that it deflates all of the tension out of the film's otherwise violent and gory proceedings. In the original Expendables, Stallone and friends only cracked jokes during down time or when they were away from their missions. This made sense, as trained mercenaries are nothing more than human. In the sequel however, no moment or action scene is sacred. A character can crack a joke or laugh about killing someone at a moment's notice and ruin what was otherwise a fun and awesome action scene. It is for reasons like these that The Expendables 2 is a noticeably weaker film than the original.

The action Gods smile upon us by reuniting both Van Damme and Adkins!

However, The Expendables 2 makes up for its flaws in certain areas that ultimately makes the film as watchable as Stallone's original. The sequel introduces a plethora of new characters and action icons that puts the original film's cast completely to shame. However, the screen time for each character seems more unbalanced this time around than ever before. After all, only so much screen time can be given to the same characters from before, along with the new ones, within a 103 minute film.

Sylvester Stallone completely phones in his performance this time around with a lazy and emotionless turn as the once bleak and human Barney Ross. Stallone barely conveys an honest human emotion throughout the film. He seems fit to maintain the same mildly tense attitude throughout the entire film. It's clear that Stallone's heart was not in the sequel as much as it was in the original.

Besides Mickey Rourke, all of the surviving members of the original film return with worse material to work with than before. One odd element of the sequel is that Jet Li is downgraded from being a significant supporting player to that of a mere cameo. It's a damn shame too, as Li is one of the few members of the franchise who can actually carry an action scene on his own. The Expendables 2 also introduces the first female ass kicker of the franchise, played by Yu Nan. Nan is given very little to do throughout the film and barely leaves an impression. Newcomer Liam Hemsworth, formerly Miley Cyrus' fiance, gives a surprisingly great performance as the teams' newest member. It's a shame that his character is killed off so soon, as Billy the Kid showcases more humanity and likability than any other Expendable in the entire sequel. Therefore, the sequel introduces very few new members to the core Expendables team.

"I now pronounce you, man and knife."

However, the sequel does step up both its cameo and villain game even more than the original film. Chuck Norris (Invasion U.S.A.) of all action stars makes a cameo appearance during the middle and end of the film as a lone mercenary who joins in on the action because...why not? His cameo is pretty ridiculous, but at least it gives Norris one last chance to up his total career kill count if anything else. Both Arnold and Bruce get in on the action this time around too. After merely standing still in the original film and cracking awful jokes, the two get to mow down bad guys this time while also cracking awful jokes. Upgraded from merely cameos, the two sort of become honorary members of the Expendables team. I am particularly embarrassed to admit it, but I kind of love the smart car bit where the two cram into a car and drive around shooting bad guys. It's incredibly silly but also bad ass at the same time. I especially love the shots of Arnie and Bruce leaning out of the car to pick up more guns to fire. However, The Expendables 2 drops the mic when it comes to its villain duo played by none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme (Hard Target) and Scott Adkins (Ninja, El Gringo). 

Van Damme and Adkins had already appeared in action films such as The Shepherd: Border Patrol, The Assassination Games, and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning together. Adkins is more or less the new Jean-Claude Van Damme too. Therefore, their pairing in The Expendables 2 was a stroke of genius. Van Damme plays a villain literally named 'Vilain." You can't get more silly and on the nose than that. Van Damme steals the show and gives one of the best performances of his career as a psychotic and sadistic criminal who takes pleasure in killing people and admires the symbol of the goat. Adkins plays Van Damme's right hand man and makes for a nice foil to Statham's Lee Christmas. The two have an especially intense moment early on in the film where Statham disrepects Adkins, only to be forced to respect him back right afterwords. Van Damme and Adkins, two of my favorite action stars working today, are the main reason that I find myself returning to The Expendables 2 every now and than, not Stallone and Statham. 

And yet, for all of The Expendables 2 silliness, there is still an underlying story about redemption amongst its revenge plot. Barney sees Billy the Kid as himself, only younger and smarter. Billy admits early on in the film that the Expendables life is not for him, and that he is going to leave the team in order to be with his girlfriend. Barney admires this because he wish he had done the same early on in his life instead of wasting the years away killing people. Therefore, when Vilain kills Billy, Barney feels responsible and saddened because Billy had a chance to live a good life. Barney's quest to avenge Billy's death is more than just simple revenge, but a personal journey about redemption for himself and Billy's lost life.

Willis and Arnie get in on the fun.

From an action stand point, The Expendables 2 is pretty solid. The film is jam packed with more action than even the first film. In fact, the final hour of the film is more or less one action scene after another until the credits roll. Unfortunately, the sequel lacks the small scale and personal nature of the first film. The sequel's massive set pieces lack a considerable amount of direction or purpose and tend to come off as montages of violence at points. The final air port battle, while entertaining and jam packed with as much fan service as possible, is honestly a mess of an action scene. Characters simply pop up out of nowhere and gun down nameless henchmen even though they rarely take cover and leave themselves open to gun fire. What kind of trained mercenary would make such an error?

The sequel also opens with an insane action scene where every character must kill 10 to 100 people each. Statham alone kills more people here than most other actors get too in their entire careers. The film's action tends to be at its strongest when the attention is shifted towards a small scaled fight that takes place during a larger battle. For example, Jet Li's fight against a number of guards in a kitchen during the opening mission is infinitely more satisfying and awesome than the entire mission itself. The same can also be said for Statham's fight against the Sangs inside of a church while the rest of the Expendables gun down the various intruders in a village. Small scaled fights like steal the show every time.

One of my problems with the first Expendables is that the film didn't feature any great one on one fights. Nobody wanted to see Dolph go up against Jet Li or Stallone go up against Steve Austin. These fights are fine, but they in no way take advantage of the previous history or skills attached to said fighters. Dolph is too tall to fight a skilled martial artists like Jet Li and Stallone is the last person who should be taking on a professional wrestler. This is why I think that the three way fight between Jet Li, Statham, and Gary Daniels is the best fight in the original film because all three of those actors are middle aged martial arts centric actors who should be fighting one another. Fortunately, The Expendables 2 gets this aspect right and features two awesome fights that pit four separate icons of action against one another.

The first notable fight that takes place during the finale pits Statham against Adkins. Both Statham and Adkins are young action stars who perform martial arts in many of their films. Therefore, it makes sense for the two to duke it out at the end of the sequel. While it is unfortunate that their fight is exceptionally short, I'll take a short fight between the two any day over no fight. The Expendables 2 also pits two of action cinema's greatest titans, Stallone and Van Damme, against one another in the final fight of the film. Both Stallone and Van Damme are particularly elder actors who have been working in the genre for several decades now. Therefore, the two more or less brawl it out with one another and resort to lots of gut punches and takedowns in a fight that benefits from some excellent build up. This is exactly what the first Expendables film was lacking, a significant and long awaited one on one fight between two of action cinema's greatest titans. Fortunately, The Expendables 2 understands this and delivers.

"Do you wanna fight me like a man or like a sheep?"

Simon West's sequel to Stallone's ode to action packs in more action and cameos than previously thought imaginable. The face offs are better, the body count is higher, and the villains are even more memorable. Even Brian Tyler's excellent score from the first film is back too. Unfortunately, the film falls hard in other areas of the picture, thereby making The Expendables 2 a weaker but still satisfying sequel. The horrendous digital effects are back and even worse this time. Computerized helicopters have never looked so terrible. The sequel also features an added helping of comedy, but at the expense of the film's tension. 

The Expendables 2 aims purely for action and comedy, but nothing more than that. If the sequel had kept its focus on the characters and scaled down the action, than its testosterone infused proceedings might have been more enjoyable and gripping. How many times are viewers expected to join these guys on these adventures if no attention is given to the characters and no filmmaker takes the material seriously? Let that be a warning to all future filmmakers of this franchise. Otherwise, The Expendables 2 is a flawed but highly enjoyable sequel that all action fans have probably already seen two or three times already.

Rating: 6/10 - A noticeably weaker albeit more fun and action packed sequel to the most testosterone infused franchise around.

Franchise:

The Expendables (dir. Sylvester Stallone, 2010)

The Expendables 2 (dir. Simon West, 2012)

The Expendables 3 (dir. Patrick Hughes, 2014)