In the
sequel to the previous edition of The
Expendables, we see the cigar-chewing Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and
his chosen gang of mercenaries romping around the world to finally take on the
sadistic Jean Vilain played by Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Couple
of new faces that bring some freshness to the gang that was otherwise filled
with ruthless looking aged people with muscles are Hemsworth, who essays the
role of a young sniper Billy and Nan Yu – only female assassin in a all-male
mercenary squad – who plays the character of Maggie. Coincidentally she was
chosen to step into the shoes to Jet Li (Ying Yang) who retires in the
beginning.
There
are a few points that prevent The Expendables 2 from being an action lover’s
dream. Firstly, the movie is fast paced right from the start when we see the
group going to rescue a Chinese Millionaire from Nepal by executing an
excellent plan of action.
As the
plot thickens, the quality and superiority of action that one expects from an
action-packed movie of this kind starts to lag. This can be seen especially
when scenes depicting hand-to-hand combat are executed. The movie also lacks
some charismatic second leads and Stathom is under-used. The comic relief and
the rivalry between Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke were missing.
Actually,
the comic relief that was provided by Lee Christmas (who
portrayed the picture of a lover boy who was heartbroken) was overshadowed by
the humor provided by the trio of Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck
Norris.
Jean-Claude
Van Damme comes to the party with all the required sniping and an
I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude towards all that was breathing. His only aim was
to get his hands on the Plutonium. Director Simon West could have used more of
his martial art skills rather than just sticking to the trademark round-house
kicks in some scenes. Jean-Claude Van Damme could have been portrayed as a
villain with a lot more physicality by making use of his fighting skills as
compared to Eric Roberts (the bad guy from the previous installment).
While
Expendables was all about larger-than-life guns, men with muscle and ready to
fight and explosions, Expendables 2 tries to keep their fans close. References
to Lundgren’s chemical engineering past, Chuck Norris facts, Rambo, the
Terminator and Die Hard all make their way in the film. This makes the
dialogues anything but inspiring. We also get to see a dig being taken at
Schwarzenegger’s real life political aspirations.
Above
all, The Expendables 2 will remain like the altar for the fans of action movies
from the 80’s and 90’s. They will eagerly wait for the 3rd part to
be released. However, Gen-X viewers might not wait as eagerly as their
predecessors because they are not used to seeing actor—who are no longer as fit
as they used to be – carrying out dare-devil stunts.
Lastly,
the movie is worth watching with all its action packed scenes. However, as an
observer, one might feel that the characters could have been made a bit more
interesting. The fact that the film seems like a cartoon in some parts also
does not look good to the eye.
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