Review of The Expendables 3 (2014) by Jesse O — 27 Nov 2014

Prior to this film's release, Sylvester Stallone said that this installment in the action franchise would be better than The Raid. This was before The Raid 2 came out, mind you, which has set a new standard that subsequent action films will find it nigh impossible to achieve.

But let's keep in mind that the first Raid was also a pretty incredible full-on action movie. Frenetic and fast-paced action sequences, with some of the best editing you will ever see, fight choreography that is out of this world.

The only thing that you can hold against The Raid is that its story was shit. So, of course, people who loved The Raid were pissed off at this. Some of the people I followed on Twitter complained. How DARE Stallone say this? Personally, as much as I love The Raid and as much as I really doubted his claims, I really only took it as something akin to a friendly rivalry.

I don't think even he honestly believed that this would be better, but that's exactly what you'd expect him to say right? At the very least he's aware of the film and he would've had to watch it to claim this would be better.

At least it gave him something to aim for, so I can't complain about that one bit. But no, this movie was not better than The Raid or The Raid 2. On to this film. I'm not gonna even bother to pretend that these films are high art.

They're tribute to action films of a bygone era featuring some of the biggest action heroes of that same bygone era. The formula is essentially the same each time out. Expendables go after the big bad, they blow a lot of shit up, and they win in the end.

Because they stick to the formula so much, it's gonna be hard for people to discern between each film. So I get that. But, at the same time, there's a fun atmosphere to each and every one of these films that's been solely lacking in this genre for years.

It's fun seeing all these action stars come together to have a good time, there's a sense of camaraderie and a chemistry that make them more fun to watch than they probably would've been otherwise.

Yea, they make a lot of jokes about how old they all are, and those were worn out with the first film. This film offers more of what you've come to expect with some really welcome additions. Antonio Banderas, for one, is pretty great in this film.

The guy brings a manic energy to the franchise that was sorely needed. Not to mention adding some more diversity to the film's cast as, with the exception of Mars in this movie as well, had no latino representation.

Mel Gibson is also good in his role. He may be a racist, sexist asshole but he's damn good here. It's not like he's got depth or anything of the sort, but he's good at playing these sociopathic maniacs.

Ronda Rousey is a welcome addition, despite the fact she's not a very good actress. This series needed female representation and they couldn't have picked a better person than Ronda Rousey. The rest of the film is pretty much the same thing you've come to expect.

Lots of banter between the Expendables, self-deprecation, loud action scenes. Like I mentioned earlier, the formula is exactly the same each time out, but I've always had a good time with these films.

They're dumb, loud, and unpretentious. I may be called a hypocrite since I shit on the Transformers franchise for the same reason. But at least this film gives you some breathing room, the characters, while one-dimensional, actually have chemistry together, and the action scenes are pretty good on top of all that.

They may not be of incredibly high quality, but they are good. The climactic action sequence in this film is really well-shot. There's some unintentionally funny moments, such as one of the characters driving around the battlefield on his motorcycle doing absolutely nothing to contribute.

He eventually contributed, but he rode around doing nothing for a long fucking time. And the tech guy being forced climb the elevator shaft to escape the building. This guy literally missed the entire battle.

They'd cut to him still climbing while the other Expendables are killing dudes left and right. It was funny. But all in all, it was a good scene and a good way to cap off the film. What can you really say about these films that hasn't been said already? These films are what they are.

They're campy, goofy fun and I had a good time watching this film. Hopefully, though, if there is a sequel, Antonio Banderas has an expanded role. He was great in this movie. This is a good rental, nothing more nothing less.