The Expendables 4 review (2023) – the franchise is DOA
Expendables 4 is what happens when a franchise goes past its sell by date.
The series seemed to reach a sensible conclusion with the 2014 Expendables 3, which introduced a new generation of the elite military group including Rhonda Rousey and Glen Powell.
If there was truly a “need” for Expendables 4 nearly ten years later, it would have made sense if that new blood was leading the way.
Instead the film dusts off series regulars Sylvester Stallone, Randy Couture and Dolph Lundgren. Of the original gang, only Jason Statham doesn’t feel like he’s going through the motions.
Easily the smartest decision with the film in general is essentially making Expendables 4 more of a standard Statham action movie with a larger supporting cast.
Statham can handle action movies just fine on his own and his most recent batch including The Beekeeper, A Working Man and Shelter are far more entertaining than Expendables 4.
Some of that is due to the filmmakers forgetting the original point of the franchise in pairing action movie icons from the 80s and 90s together.
Expendables 3 didn’t actually need the new blood with the franchise debuts of stars like Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas and Mel Gibson joining the party.
As far as action movie star status, Expendables 4 is seriously lacking.
Sure, Iko Uwais (The Road) and Tony Jaa (The Protector) are strong recruits as well as Andy Garcia providing some decent acting beyond action movie credibility, but the other new additions are underwhelming. Megan Fox, 50 Cent, Jacob Scipio and Levy Tran seem better suited for the Expendables JV squad.
Screenwriters Kurt Wimmer (Total Recall – 2012), Tad Daggerhart (Black Lotus) and Max D. Adams (The Terminal List) cobble together a decent enough premise — Barney (Stallone) assembles the Expendables to stop mercenary Rahmat (Uwais) from making off with nuclear warheads.
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Christmas (Statham) disobeys Barney’s orders to stop Rahmat leading to a devastating tragedy that leaves the team leaderless and Christmas off the squad.
Worse, his situationship Gina (Fox) is tasked with stopping Rahmat while CIA operative Marsh (Garcia) tags along to make sure the job gets done correctly this time.
Naturally, Christmas sets off on his own to seek payback and recover the warheads. Not surprisingly, these Statham-focused moments are the best scenes in the film.
The script doesn’t do anyone any favors particularly when it comes to the banter that made the previous films fun. Toll Road (Couture) talking about his cauliflower ear to new recruit Lash (Tran) is goofy. Scipio plays the motormouth son of Banderas’ chatty character, which might have worked if Banderas appeared in more of the films. A legacy character connected to a one-film character isn’t nearly as entertaining as the writers think especially with his oversharing concerning his various kinks.
Expendables 4 reportedly had a $100 million budget, but it’s hard to see what actually went into the actual production.
There are some bizarre green screen segments — most notably when Barney visits Christmas at Gina’s house (why would this need green screen?) and dubious CGI that would be bad by B-movie standards. Explosions start before a target is shot, blood splatters are cartoonishly applied and there is a complete lack of a realistic sense of scale.
In the most egregious example, Christmas gets a ride on a small boat that looks like a toy Statham is barely standing on.
Director Scott Waugh (Need for Speed) struggles with crafting compelling action sequences. There’s little suspense as the action comes off more like a flat rake rehearsal before the intense actual take.
Expendables 3 received plenty of criticism from fans lamenting its PG-13 rating, so Waugh overcompensates with excessive meaningless gore just to earn an R-rating.
Previous installments didn’t need anything approximating Oscar-quality performances since the action sequences and interaction with action icons was the real draw. Expendables 4 lacks any genuine excitement outside of the scenes pitting Statham and Jaa against Uwais and Rahmat’s goons. Those are almost worth enduring the rest of the film to see.
This draws more attention to Fox and 50 Cent’s flat dialogue delivery. Garcia at least is committed to making the dreary script engaging on his end to earn his paycheck.
Expendables 4 is a worthless addition to the series that seems to pretty effectively kill off the franchise once and for all.
Rating: 3 out of 10
Photo Credit: Millennium Films
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