Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li… are some of the biggest names in the action film industry. At their peak, just one of these names was enough to draw audiences to the cinema. However, with his own prestige, Stallone not only gathered the above stars but also convinced Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas… to turn The Expendables 3 into the movie with the biggest action star cast in the past three decades.
Stallone returns as Barney Ross, a skilled mercenary who leads the team of mobile destruction machines, including Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews). After rescuing former founding member Doc (Wesley Snipes) from prison, the Expendables receive a proposal from Drummer (Harrison Ford), a high-ranking member of the CIA.
The mission that the CIA asked the Expendables to help was to destroy an arms dealer who contributed to the bloody massacres. Barney and his teammates could not have guessed that this evil character was Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) – another former member of the group who was thought to have died a long time ago. After Stonebanks discovered and destroyed his plan, Ross decided to abandon his old teammates and split off to form a new Expendables group to fight against the arms dealer…
After the first two installments were relatively successful in terms of revenue and satisfied fans of 1980s action heroes, The Expendables 3 continues to thicken the lineup by adding a series of stars. In the main villain role, Mel Gibson (famous for the Lethal Weapon series , Mad Max series) is trusted. The Expendables team is supplemented by Wesley Snipes ( Blade series ) as knife expert Doc and Antonio Banderas ( Desperado , Once Upon A Time In Mexico ) as the talkative Galgo.
As if that wasn’t enough, Stallone and director Patrick Hughes also recruited rising star Kellan Lutz, boxer Victor Ortiz and wrestling beauty Ronda Rousey… to refresh the lineup. However, having such a star-studded cast that covers the movie poster doesn’t seem like a reasonable idea because the role of each individual becomes too limited. Jet Li’s fans will probably feel that the martial arts star’s talent is wasted with little screen time spent only on… shooting. The same thing happened to famous names of the past like “terminator” Arnold Schwarzenegger or Harrison Ford.
Ever since he assembled the action heroes to make The Expendables in 2010, “Rambo” Sylvester Stallone had already determined to make a B-grade action movie reminiscent of the explosive, hero-driven films of the 1980s. That’s why the film’s content was not highly rated because it was predictable and sometimes even unbelievable. Audiences went to the cinema to enjoy the film simply to see their idols again and witness them exchanging humorous dialogues, joining forces to fight against the enemy.
However, in The Expendables 3 , having Barney form a new team brought a feeling of disappointment, when none of the names Victor Ortiz, Ronda Rousey, Kellan Lutz… could compare to the old members of the Expendables team played by Jet Li or Jason Statham. The addition of Wesley Snipes after he had just been released from prison was also not really necessary and only the character Galgo (Antonio Banderas) left an impression with the humor coming from his non-stop chattering mouth. If you pay attention, the audience can recognize Arnold Schwarzenegger imitating his old Predator lines or Wesley Snipes mocking his own tax evasion scandal to make people laugh.
The most important part of The Expendables 3 is the action, which is done relatively well, although in some places the special effects create a feeling of unreality. Right from the first scene, the film shows the “craziness” in action with the scene where Barney’s group uses helicopters to attack a train to rescue their teammates. The melee scene about half an hour at the end of the film can satisfy action movie lovers with a scale including helicopters and tanks. In that context, the members of the Expendables group have moments of personal brilliance with the action and shooting scenes that have made their brand.
While the battle scenes are epic, there are some unconvincing explosions, plus a somewhat quick boss fight that may not be entirely satisfying. The Expendables 3 is only rated PG 13 in the US due to the lack of gore, which is intended to draw a wider audience to the theaters. But that’s probably not what most fans of the film’s star-studded cast were expecting. The film’s content is average and only really gets interesting towards the end.