Review: 'The Expendables 2'

Film: The Expendables 2
Director: Simon West
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nan Yu

Rating: **1/2

                             
Cigar-chomping Barney Ross (Stallone) and his merry group of mercenaries romp through scenes not unfitting in a PTSD-suffering armyman’s nightmares to take on Jean-Claude, Van Damme, playing baddie Jean Vilain.

 

Among the new, not-so- craggy faces that prevent the film from getting too self-referential of bygone action cinema are Hemsworth as young sniper Billy and Nan as Maggie who brings grace and brains to  the outfit while also filling the 1-member Asian quota after Yin Yang (Jet Li) calls it a day.

 

A few things come in between The Expendables 2 becoming the adrenaline-soaked action lover’s wet dream. One of them is that the film peaks right at the beginning with a well-planned-out retrieval operation of a Chinese millionaire in Nepal.  

 

After the plot sets in, the quality of action is wanting especially in terms of hand-to-hand combat. There is also a lack of colourful secondary characters, and not enough Statham – an actor whose abilities were second to the absent Mickey Rourke’s artist/warrior tool from the first film.

 

The comic timing of Statham’s knife-wielding Lee Christmas, who played the lovelorn foil to the stoic Ross in the first film, is lost to the ‘humour’ arising from the presence of Willis, Schwarzenegger and Norris.

 

Van Damme rises to the occasion with the requisite sneering and disregard for life and limb in pursuit of plutonium. Apart from the few trademark roundhouse kicks, physicality of his character could be better highlighted given the martial arts background that previous evildoer Eric Roberts lacked.

 

While Expendables managed – at times - to rise above the baby-seal-sized guns, age-battered bulk and explosions, its sequel seeks to more carefully cater to adulating fans. An example of the fan service:  References to Lundgren’s chemical engineering past, Chuck Norris facts, Rambo, the Terminator and Die Hard all make their way in the film’s less than inspiring dialogue while the last film exercised more restraint, making one jibe at Schwarzenegger’s off-screen political ambitions .

 

Should you watch the film? Well film will remain the holy grail of casting for action fans of the 80’s and 90’s till the next installment is out. Non-rabid fans won’t get the reverential treatment of the actors who are way past their physical prime.

 

What everyone can probably come to agree with is that that the treatment of the characters could have been more interesting and the overall treatment less cartoonish – something that Stallone tried to do as director in the last one.