Good concept but some things were missing...........

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2010)

It's certainly interesting to see a corrupted member of the C.I.A as one the main antagonists along with a few Americans including Gunnar Jensen who was part of The Expendables at the start of the film but is kicked out due to his wreck less behaviour and would later join the side of James Munroe (CIA agent) and the Brutal Dictator General Garza who James Munroe is controlling and keeping in power to make the people in Vilena (Fictional Island set in the Gulf Of Mexico)fear him for his own selfish goals and the main plot is to free the island from James Munroe . Personally I felt there was not really enough insight into The Elite Mercenary Force (The Expendables); things just kept happening and it was only really later in the film I even began to catch on to what it was about. I know all the characters had names but at times I didn't catch them. Another thing I could not understand was the scene with Church, Trench and Ross; did they really need to get Arnold Schwarzenegger (Trench) and Bruce Willis (Church) for a role that was so brief? Really Church offered The Expendables the mission of overthrowing a brutal dictator and then what; we don't see or hear from him after? And the plot between Lee Christmas and Lacy; what was that about? No impact on the plot and you don't even think about Lacy after you see her for the final time on the motorbike when Lee wins her over... In addition just once I'd like to see a film where the shooting combat is believable; name me one elite soldier that can keep throwing enemies to the ground in real life without getting shot by a nearby enemy? I'm all for action films but I've seen too much unbelievable shoot 'em ups already.
Anyway moving away from that I think I should discuss what I found to be good. The acting was quite good and the actors did suit their roles; the best acting of all was undoubtedly from Mickey Rourke (Tool) while making a revelation to Ross ( Sylvester Stallone) about his experience in the Bosnian War to Ross which was definitely among one of the most emotional scenes I've seen in a long time. We really needed to see more of that guy in this film. The plot itself is nicely done but quite hard to understand at first
Here's a list of some of the things I enjoyed and didn't enjoy.
WARNING :DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS BECAUSE SOME OF THESE ARE SPOILERS
Pros:
If you're into pure action this is for you.
The Plot is very enjoyable if you can follow and understand it.
The Main Antagonists are very interesting and it's well thought out how General Garza ultimately gets fed up with James Munroe and no longer wants his help as he realises how little he cared about his people and no longer wants to be manipulated.
Does a good job of showing that General Garza cares for his daughter Sandra despite his initial cruelty to his people.
Action flows well and some scenes had tense moments
Some Emotional Scenes especially the one with Tool are well done.
Cons:
When James Munroe kills General Garza for turning against him we don't even get to see any emotion from Sandra; it certainly could have been a very nice emotional scene as the General was her father and they had finally made peace briefly before he was killed. So we never find out how she felt about it and it's almost like it didn't happen.
Not much insight into The Expendables Mercenary Force which was definitely a real let down.
Can be quite hard to catch the names of some characters and to be honest I had to watch the film a couple of times to get the names; was I the only one?
Some events in the film were almost forgettable and didn't need to be there as they never affected the plot.
We never hear from Church again; he doesn't even show up to congratulate the team on their success.
Plot can be difficult to get into at first.
Combat seemed a bit unrealistic. Does every action film have to have people capable of superhuman feats? Don't mind lack of realism in films but unrealistic combat is just too common now. This might or mightn't be a good thing; it really depends on your own preferences.
Some characters needed to be developed better because some felt like empty shells.