This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
It has almost been 10 years since we last saw The Expendables wreaking havoc across the globe. With this next installment, aptly titled Expend4bles, Sylvester Stallone is back with a few familiar faces but also a couple new ones. It didn’t seem like there was that much hype around this one and rightfully so, it was unneeded.
Sylvester Stallone is joined once again by his counterparts Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture in addition to some new faces. Megan Fox, 50 Cent, Levy Tran and Jacob Scipio join the unkillable group. In this fourth installment, Barney Ross and Co. are once again hired to do mercenary work. This time they have to stop a mad man from starting World War 3 with nuclear weapons. With the old crew and the new additions, they have to work together to once again save the world.
First off, the casting could have been better thought out. I am not saying that all these individuals are bad actors, I am just saying that the acting in this film was definitely not top tier. It felt bland and the dialogue just wasn’t there. There were no conversations that felt important, just felt like fillers. Stallone and Lundgren are just getting too old to star in these types of action films and the lackluster of emotion that was out into this movie was trash.
Another issue I had with Expend4bles was with its character development. I felt no attachments to any of the new characters we were introduced to. I like to make the analogy to The Expendables 2. If you have seen this one, you know what I am talking about. There was a character played by Liam Hemsworth that seemed like he was going to play a major part. This was also around the time where he was just getting really well known. So obviously I was expecting him to survive throughout the movie instead of being killed off toward the beginning. I always connected with the character pretty well and it was a shock that they did what they did.
But I cannot say the same for the other characters in this movie. There just wasn’t any development, besides maybe a tiny bit from Statham’s and Fox’s character. It just wasn’t well thought out or accomplished.
The only decent part of Expend4bles was the above average combat scenes. There were many action sequences throughout the movie but the one that stood out was Jason Statham’s solo killing spree towards the end of the movie. The previous ones were fine but when you have Statham one-tap headshot dozens of soldiers, it kept my eyes to the screen.
Final Thoughts
I didn’t go into this Expend4bles expecting a miracle especially with the 13% on Rotten Tomatoes. I watched the previous three Expendable movies a few days prior to seeing this one and I was really hoping they would pick it up but again, it just wasn’t up to par. I would watch any of the original three Expendables before seeing this one again.
