Expendables 4 Review

*Movie Rating: 6/10

** Film Rating: 4/10

I want to preface this review by saying I absolutely love the '80s and '90s action movies which the expendables so lovingly try to recreate and replicate in their films. I grew up on movies like the Lethal Weapon series, Die Hard, the Terminators, and Face Off. I am 100% in what should be the target audience for these movies. That being said, I still do have some bad things to say about this movie, but that does not mean I have any disdain for this type of crazy action movie.

But as always, I would like to start with the good stuff. First off, I need to say that Tony Jaa was a great addition to the cast. As always with Jaa, his fight scenes were amazing. A particular one with Levy Tran's Lash stands out as quick, efficient, and badass in all the right ways. It being quick is part of the problem though, because, in my opinion, he doesn't get enough screen time and only really has about three fight scenes. Speaking of screen time, Jason Statham's Lee Christmas gets a huge amount of screen time in this movie and he really helps to push the narrative forward. In addition to it just being great to see more of Statham, which it always is, it really helps to add another dimension to his character. Seeing most of the movie from his point of view really helps the movie stay focused when some of the other entries in the franchise struggle with balancing so many characters at once. Christmas also has, arguably the best fight in the film as well as decent character development which is also something that has been lacking in previous entries. Like the other Expendables movies, this one had a fair bit of comedy in it. Nothing excessive but it is definitely a plus to the movie and deserves a mention with all the other positive things about the film. The writing is another thing that deserves a mention in this section. This is the first Expendables that tried to do something different with a twist and a reveal at the end and it definitely gets an A for effort. While there are aspects of the story that fell flat that I will explain later, there is a part during the first quarter of the movie that literally dropped my jaw. I'm obviously not going to spoil it for anyone but It genuinely caught me so off guard in a way that no other movie in the franchise has been able to and for that alone, it may have some of the best writing in the franchise.

Now as we all know, with the good, must also come the bad and there is definitely some bad stuff to talk about in this movie. Starting with the choreography, I know in the previous section I described some fights as amazing, and I stand by it. All the hand-to-hand and knife fights are a joy to experience. It is the shooting that's really where this film shows its cracks, there are more than a few scenes where the enemy soldiers or minions would just stand there and wait to be shot, making no attempt to shoot the person directly in front of them that just put their last bullet through the head of the guy next to them and chooses to reload out in the open. I know you have to suspend your disbelief for movies like this but that really took me out of the experience a few times. My next gripe has more to do with my personal disappointments rather than it affecting the quality of the movie, but I was really looking forward to the trademark action movie star cameos that seem to appear in every movie in the franchise except this one. I won't harp on it because it's not fair to the movie but I just needed to express my disappointment. Now, onto the writing. I want to say that I know Expendables isn't known for its storytelling and to be honest I don't think that's why anyone watches the movies. I know we are watching these movies to see our favorite action stars kick nonstop ass. But I need to talk about all the ways that the writing fell flat. Firstly, the pace of the movie was off from the start, cutting between the villain leading an action-packed assault to a normal conversation between two of our expendables and the pace continues to feel weird throughout the movie. The biggest problem I have with the film's writing is that it is ridiculously predictable while it's trying SO hard not to be. The twist at the end is obvious way before it comes, the secret villain reveal is one you can see coming from a mile away and it is so ridiculously apparent you would have to be trying to not see it coming. The addition of a secret main villain reveal hurts the movie because the villain we and the characters are going after the whole time, seems very subpar. He is taken down relatively easily when that fight eventually comes and when the main villain is revealed we don't even get the one on one fight that's in every other movie. There are also multiple plot holes that I can't explain here without ruining the movie but can really take you out of the movie if you notice a few too many. My last gripe is the fact that they bring new characters in with no explanation, backstory, or even a single character trait past their appearance and that really robs the character of their full potential and robs the audience of experiencing it.

All in all, there are parts of this movie that improve upon its predecessors and parts that are worse. As with most movies, it all just depends on what you are looking for in the movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit and I would not want to rob someone who want to see it of that experience. So, if you are a fan of the other Expendables movies, this is the one for you, you will probably enjoy the twists and turns and everything they tried to do with this movie. Also, that surprise toward the beginning will probably hit you the way it did me. Otherwise, maybe save your money and wait until this movie hits streaming.

As always, thank you very much for reading my review. I would love to hear your thoughts and I hope you have a great day!

*The movie rating is a rating based solely on entertainment value. Purely how much the movie entertains. Bad writing or acting doesn't matter as much for this rating scale because as long as the writing and acting entertain, it will score well.

**The Film rating scale is based on the quality of writing, directing, acting, and other film techniques that go into the film. Just because a movie is entertaining doesn't mean it's written or directed particularly well so it may not score well on this scale.