A craftsmen's disaster (awful score, rigging, camera, editing, story)

Rating: 3/10 (2 September 2012)

Expendables 2 tries to step into the big shoes of Expendables 1 but fails disappointingly.
Throughout the movie the viewer gets the impression of watching a Greek tragedy, but not an action movie.
~~ Musical Score ~~
The musical score confines to strings playing slow arrangements. At a few, random(!) occasions, playing staccato lines, but still it's not "Action" music.
This musical score lacks brass, snare drum, timpani. It's lacking hard, military, score parts.
I remember better musical scores, like Predator, Rambo: First Blood Part II, The Wild Geese, Mission Impossible TV show.
Where's Alan Silvestry? Lalo Schifrin? Composers like (unfortunately deceased) Jerry Goldsmith or Maurice Jarre? Don't they belong to a movie like the Expandables like any of the actors?
~~ Sound Effects ~~
The only sound effects to appreciate have been the heroes' guns. No other extraordinary efforts in creating sound effects have been taken.
This comes along with camera/editing, lacking a view for details.
You never hear (or see) gloves grate when tightened. You never hear (or see) snap fasteners click when closing a knife's holster.
You never "hear" silence. - Back in the 80's, limiters were used to increase the impact of sound of a movie. Their use had been exaggerated so the the viewer was able to hear crackles when no-one talked. These were the most exciting moments because the viewer actually had the impression of adrenaline kicking through his own veins, which would have resulted in the same effect. The viewer could virtually hear a needle fall on the floor. Expendables 2 is missing both: Silence (and thereby suspense) and a limiter device.
~~ Rigging and Color Timing ~~
The whole movie is tainted blue. It's lacking pristine colours. The viewer feels more like watching Sleepy Hollow or Blade than watching an action Movie.
But for the worst: While the lighting people put lights on the stage, they missed to put light on the actors' faces! The actors mostly are just black blurry shadows acting in front of the camera!
Moreover, the movie is missing highlights. The only highlight I could actually see was the sun shining through the airplane's windows. But that's all. Lighting technicians must have been on strike while making this movie.
~~ Camera and editing ~~
Camera end final cut are awful.
The camera did not focus on details at all. You never see macro close-ups, e.g. showing a hand either tightening a glove or clasping a knife in the holster. You never see someone's eyes focusing on anything.
This becomes particular annoying during action scenes: Every actor is almost immediately shooting around. There's not a single arming/preparing sequence in the move.
The camera never follows a flying knife, or any other of the rare non-shotgun weapons, on its way.
The whole cut is always either hasty or boring. Anyway. it's rendering many potentially relevant scenes irrelevant.
~~ Story telling ~~
This flick is a patchwork of about a dozen common-or-garden stories, each told within 5 minutes, and none of them adds value to the movie.
There is not a moment of suspense in the movie. What happens on the screen is either boredom (like the actors waiting for night to come) or immediate action. The viewer never is ahead (or behind) of the actors' knowledge.
The jokes don't bring relief to a suspenseful moment. They are mostly referring to the age of the actors.
I don't like being reminded of being too old when watching an action flick with my old heroes. I want them to surprise me. I want them to show me what they can still do! Either join the action as a hero or stay out of it.
I'm missing the funny chats, the ambiguity between brave heart killers and sentient men, like the Lee/Stallone dialog in part 1. Or the Mickey Rourke scenes from part 1. The coffee/spaghetti cooking scene is funny though.
The whole story is missing detail and suspense. The villain never becomes a personal menace. His/their killing is performed without any reason. But a villain does not become a menace from just killing people at random.
Most character dialogs or monologues are bullshit. Few jokes are funny. Most of them aren't, particularly when they are making fun of the heroes' previous characters.
~~ All in all ~~
The flick is technically bad done.
I have had the impression of taking part in a video game, but not of watching a Rambo style quality action movie.
I've been missing soundness in the characters' portrayal.
I've been missing suspense, in story, sound and musical score.
There have been too many heroes in the movie. None of them got enough time to fill his role. Less would have been more.
I loved how Thomas Danneberg managed to German-dub both, Silvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
My conclusion: The second part of a series always is bad. Seems to be a mathematical law, waiting to be cracked yet.
However, I'm very much looking forward to a third (better) part!