Stallone Needs to Go to Film School

Rating: 6/10 (13 August 2010)

I just saw The Expendables. Like most films, I went into this hoping upon hope it would be fantastic. How could it NOT be - with the incredible cast of action stars Stallone had assembled?
For the most part I enjoyed it. But why in the world did Stallone shoot almost every action scene in such close-up that you absolutely cannot tell what is happening? It's as if he took a class in how to be action artsy-fartsy in film school and used what he learned to totally screw up his movie. You see blood fly, fists pound flesh, knives slice into throats, guns blaze, bodies drop - and you absolutely can't tell who did what to whom! It's just basic filmmaking incompetence in my opinion. The editing makes it worse by attempting to create frenzy and excitement through rapid cuts that last merely a few frames, but again, it's like someone told them that's the way to create a fast-paced, exciting scene. The quality of the stunt work is excellent, and obviously it was totally unnecessary to split every action into 30 individual cuts.
So I'm frustrated. A great action movie with an incredible cast that is pretty much ruined through nothing more than stylistic and technical incompetence.
And why the heck did they show you-know-who in the preview trailer to totally destroy his wonderful cameo appearance!