7/10
A perfectly enjoyable film, if you know what to expect
4 August 2014
By now you should really know what your getting into with "The Expendables 3" if you've seen the previous installments in the series. If you have not seen the previous films then with an "Expendables" movie you should expect witty jokes, lots of action, a star studded cast filled with old and current action stars and a paper thin story which is used just to set up the next gun fight. "The Expendables 3" is no exception to this formula and that is not a bad thing. Although there is some problems with the formula.

One thing to note about this new installment in the series is that the story is the best it has ever been. Its not Oscar worthy but its more interesting and fleshed out than the previous films. "The Expendables 3" see's Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his team of mercenaries go after an arms dealer Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) who turns out to have history with Barney and "The Expendables". Now Stonebanks is set out on wiping out "The Expendables" which forces Barney to retire his old team and recruit a new team.

The cast in "The Expendables 3" is even bigger this time around with old favorites returning such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jet Li to reprise their roles as Trench and Yin Yang. Along with some great new editions like Antonio Banderas and Wesley Snipes. However the cast is just too big this time around. Lots of fan favorite characters are given very little to do and the same goes to some of the new characters. For example Harrison Ford does very little apart from tell Barney where to go and what to do throughout the film. He just feels shoehorned into the story because they couldn't get Bruce Willis back to reprise his role as Church. Also most of the new younger editions to the cast are not given anything interesting or note worthy to do apart from make fun of the older members of the cast about how old they all are and shoot a gun at random soldiers. Mel Gibson is the best villain by far in the series as he is truly menacing and really is a force to be reckoned with, but he feels underused and the film would have benefited from a good villain. What makes most great action movies great is the presence of a truly menacing villain. A few great action movies to name with fantastic villains is "Die Hard" and "The Terminator".

Of course the action is the most important part of any action movie and the action in "The Expendables 3" is as good as any of the previous films. This film doesn't try to do anything really that new with the action but there are a couple key moments particularly in the latter half of the movie which stand out and there is plenty of witty banter between characters to entertain you between the action sequences. Although some of the special effects in the movie are horrifically bad and really take you out of the action.

Over all "The Expendables 3" is a perfectly enjoyable film with entertaining action scenes, some incredibly bad effects which take you out of the film, a much improved story and a fine cast although there is some questionable new editions to the cast which make you wonder why they are even in the movie apart from the fact that Sylvester Stallone believes that bigger is better
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