Surprisingly... boring?

Rating: 5/10 (4 February 2013)

Okay now I didn't expect this movie to have an Oscar-winning script or performances but I enjoyed the first film for what it was, a no-holds barred, fun action blockbuster. Expendables 2 is devoid of fun, and all the action is completely by-the-numbers and listless. Sylvester Stallone is a great action director. Simon West (Con Air, Tomb Raider) is not. I have no idea why Stallone decided not to direct this one but it was a huge mistake. The whole movie is pretty much just hundreds of braindead bad guys getting shot in repetitive fashion for 100 minutes. The first film had energy but this one just drags on and on. Even cameos by Willis, Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris are pretty much wasted. The climax of the film involves the team shooting up an airport and Statham and some second-in-command bad guy duking it out next to a plane with a giant propeller blade spinning right behind them. Hmm I wonder if someone is going to get chopped up in those blades? Predictable, predictable, predictable. And the final fight between Stallone and Van Damme is pointless and clichéd, but not enough to even be humorous. The movie actually takes itself too seriously sometimes. And something weird happens at the end. The team is all sitting around the aircraft celebrating, everyone except Yin Yang. Jet Li mysteriously vanishes halfway through the movie and never returns. Did he realize how pointless his involvement with this series was and just walked off the set? I mean he beats up people with frying pans in one scene. That's about the extent of his role. He's Jet Li, not freaking Samwise Gamgee. This whole movie is a huge waste of time.