Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

just got back from work. About to see it in....40 mins. I'll report back.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

I got dragged to a midnight show by my friends. I'll write my full thoughts when I get home from work and I'm in less of a bad mood.

Yes, it's far superior to that of the first film. However, the first film is a flaming piece of shit and this entry is more mediocre than anything else.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

i thought this was pretty fun.

i too thought the first was merely ok. this was more of the same, but i think done a little better. i think Simon West had a better handle on the action scenes than Sly. the action was non-stop and pretty graphic. akin to the latest Rambo in some of the brutality which i didn't expect to see. def. more brutal than the first.

though they tried to instill some heart, i think it fell flat. another thing that fell flat were the one-liners. god, were they awful. they must of used every one-liner from both Arnold's and Bruce's movies in about a 30 second span. that was way overkill and very forced. the other humor in it was equally forced. that is my biggest gripe that they tried to instill humor and heart and it was very forced.

but, the action set pieces while a tad boring and we've seen it all before, were nicely scripted.

i thought JCVD made for a pretty good antagonist, along with Scott Adkins who i don't really know. i also liked that the "special" characters (Arnold, Bruce, Chuck) gelled and didn't really conflict with one another. they were used sparingly, but it worked for the most part. too bad Jet Li wasn't in this at all, save for a few minutes. he played nicely off of Dolph's Gunnar character, similar to the first movie. i thought he would make some kind of grand re-entrance, but alas...

still, the movie worked. better than the first, but by no means a masterpiece or action tour-de-force second coming.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/3.5.gif

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

so...just came back from it.

*sigh* The flavor or surprise of all this is meh. It's better made than EX1 but...like scott1598 the humor and the heart instilled in it is horrible. Just bad. The heart was just mediocre..and a lot humor was too damn well aware of itself. Made me cringe. I really liked the intro. That was pretty solid.

I just...wasn't really surprised or really wowed by anything after that intro. It's like..it blows it's load hardcore w/ the intro and the titles come up..and then...mediocre. Li's departure at least was ok. Hemsworth was cool for how little he was there.

It was just too self aware that it annoyed me. It MIGHT be worse than EX1 just cuz of the script.

JCVD wasn't really that badass. He was there, he was the big baddie. But...I didn't really feel the power of how bad he was. Adkins was wasted. The fights were better filmed but..they weren't really memorable. Again...a wow factor wasn't there. In EX1 you had a nice little bit w/ each member and how badass they were...here they're still badass but they're not really surprising you anymore.

The intro had it all in spades. The rest couldn't live up to it. Not all the humor is bad some of it is actually alright..but when it had to be self aware of what this film has..it kills everything. Norris was pretty worthless as well. He was mostly there for appearance and some jokes, which his did work at least. Did enjoy the bit about Lundgren's educational background..but then it makes too much out of it that the reference is bloated and not fun anymore.

Also wtf was this filmed on? At times it looked like a good visual but at times it was fuzzy like..it was zoomed in and it looked off. CGI was alright, better than EX1....but still looked off.

I'm really sad to say but...I just..didn't really give a damn about a lot that was happening.

Sly vs JCVD was alright. I'm just really let down by how more mediocre that script was.

A+ intro, C- movie. Very unbalanced.

I guess I can wait for EX3 to be a better movie.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Just got back from a screening. I enjoyed the first one for seeing some of my action heroes on the big screen, and enjoyed the Director's Cut even more, however I realise its shortcomings.

EX2 is more of the same but... better. All the unnecessary stuff that nobody wanted to see in the first one (the romantic subplots, the boring bad guy power struggles...) are pretty much all stripped out. Meaning Charisma Carpenter isn't featured in an awkward subplot that doesn't go anywhere and is now featured solely for the obligatory eye candy scene (fine by me).

The action is a LOT better than the first, the opening scene is great but the fun really kicks off when Chuck Norris arrives. Fucking brilliant. The guy steals the show with his appearances. The editing is a lot better and the violence feels a bit rawer and less 'phony'.

Jean-Claude Van Damme is AWESOME, I wish the movie had featured more of him. He's a great bad guy for this kind of movie, chewing the scenery, acting like a bad ass and generally being great fun to watch.

The most unfortunate elements are that most of the best moments are in the trailers and there feels like there should be a little more 'filling' before the end climax. Fingers crossed for a directors cut on BD.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

I do think a DC of this could make it better if it gave us more good over the mediocre. Again..I may hate on it a bit harshly but it is better made than EX1. You can see wtf is going but I just didn't care about it though. It's just..the heart they tried to bring into it w/ those people was just getting me to roll my goddamn eyes, man. And the crap humor. If it didn't have those 2 things I'd very much approve of how get to the point it mostly is...aside from those shitty people...

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

It's a better made film than the first one? That may be the one note I disagree with. I saw the film presented in DLP last night and half the film looked as I was watching a fourth-generation bootleg workprint VHS tape. It was blurry, but also riddled with compression artifacts, digital noise reduction and edge enhancement. The friend I was sitting next to made the same comment and we were all sitting in the back row of the theater. We were the furthest from the screen and we could all notice how ugly it looked.

Is it a better paced and more intriguing film than the first one? Yes, in every shape, way and form. All of the character development and subplots are dropped in favor for more action! However, the biggest problem I had with this entry is the same I had with the last film: it's not very fun or memorable. It's fluff and while being easily digestible as its barely ninety minutes (and feels like forty-five), but it's easily forgettable. There's nothing that stands out and leaves an impression. It's a whole film consisting of "Meh."

The "extended cameos" of Schwarzenegger, Willis, Norris, Li and Hemsworth are disappointing because those five are the best part of the entire film. Schwarzenegger, Willis, Norris and Li bring the film some genuine fun moments whereas Hemsworth gives the flick its heart and soul. In fact:

Jean-Claude Van Damme was great as his brief stint of the villain. On the complete opposite side, Scott Adkins' was awful.

The action scenes, outside of the opening scene, leave much to be desired. The final action sequence was worthless considering they practically ripped off the Terminal sequence from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (all down to the mowing down of innocent civilians).

Maybe the third time's the charm? They need to get a writing and directing team who can grasp such an over the top concept, but really embrace it and make it no holds barred. Michael Davis, Jason Eisener, James McTeigue, Neveldine & Taylor, etc. Someone who doesn't have much clout, but has proven they can make a film that's completely over the top and make it work.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Going to see it Sunday with some friends, more of the same but a little better, I can live with that.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Weird.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

I enjoyed the movie to a point. I don't think I have seen an action movie where the villain gets so little screen time. The opening was great, but the rest of the movie was just decent. There were just too many characters and not enough badassery. I actually think that the movie could have been more violent. I also hated the look to the movie. Yes, the action scenes made more sense than in the first one, but the movie seemed to be shot slightly out of focus so you still couldn't make heads or tails out of some of the scenes. If they had focused more on the core group and given more screen time to Van Damme, then this would have been the best action movie of the summer. As it stands, the movie was decent.

*** out of ****

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

See this is where we disagree. The first one had moments that you remembered. Li breaking that guy's neck w/ a kick, Crews mowing down guys left and right. Sly vs. Austin (though dark as fuck w/ some editing issues), Dolph vs. Li (again editing but still memorable as a moment). This had none for me. The intro was grade A awesomeness. And the editing and color timing on this thing was levels ahead of what we got in EX1. It was better made.

Ok..so you as well saw the weird look of it. I knew it couldn't just be me. Again..anyone know wtf they filmed this on?

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Just saw got back from seeing this and I enjoyed it. The action, fights, bloodletting was fantastic. I actually enjoyed the fact that it was self-aware. It had that certain Punisher:War Zone/Grindhouse feel to it.

Dumb fun at its finest, imo.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Oh, and our trailers were:


Looper
Man With The Iron Fists
Dredd


All 3 got great reactions especially MWTIF.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

For trailers: I had Sly actioner Bullet in the Head, I think, that is what it was called. Looked solid with he guy from Infernal Affairs? Maybe?
Also, Dredd and Arnold's Last Stand. The latter didn't look too bad.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Just got back and it looks like my thoughts echo what was said earlier. I liked it, but it could've been so much more, especially after a great opening. I liked the gags making fun of the cast at their own expense like the ear jokes, the Norris jokes and the Arnold,Bruce exchange of each other's one-liners but was disappointed when Arnold delivered the PG version of Yippy-Ki-Ya. Glad they got more screen time though.

I did want more JCVD. He seemed underused aside from 2 bigger scenes. Overall, it's a treat to see these guys kicking ass on the big screen again. It was funny during the airport scene thinking that I played that level on CofD before. I did get tired of the CG blood because it was so overused.

I think the one thing that I would take away from this film is the fact that if these 65+ year old guys can still keep up with the younger guys in terms of bad-assery, I still have a few good years left in me.

I'm hoping that E3 takes all of the critiques of the first two films, learns from them, and goes out with a monster finale worth of everyone's man card.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

And was it me or did Charisma Carpentar look terrible?

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Just you, homie. She looked extremely fuckable, as always.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

We had (in order):

The Last Stand
The Possession
Dredd 3D
Bullet in the Head
Resident Evil: Retribution
The Man with the Iron Fists
Taken 2

Most of the theater was bored by time the fifth trailer started, but The Last Stand and Dredd 3D got solid responses from the audience. Seriously Regal, is it necessary to play SEVEN trailers before a film starts? Christ.

Other than the people involved, I don't remember a single instance of what happened during those fight sequences. On the other hand, I remember a few key moments from Rambo which I feel is a far superior film in Stallone's recent career revival.

According to IMDB, it was shot on film. Super 35 to be exact. Yikes.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

Super 35 and processed it all to hell. It was gritty as fuck, which was an obvious aesthetic choice. I wasn't bothered by it, but can see how some folks might not like that. At least they didn't use lens flares.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

yeah but there some issues w/ that image for sure. That couldn't have been intended. The times when the grit was there it was great but then there was a closeup of Sly in the fake model US town while smoking his cigar? Goddamn was that an ugly washed out image. Horrid.

Also Donnacha mentioned something about audio..I only can remember and noticed one moment where the dialogue was overpowered by the music and that was when Barney talks about tracking, finding, and killing JCVD. Like right at the beginning of that scene..otherwise..no audio issues that I noticed.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

I was fond of the film, but once and for all, can the love for Scott Adkins ease up? The guy should be a silent henchman and nothing more; he couldn't even competently deliver the quarter page of dialogue he had over the course of the movie.

Van Damme on the other hand, deserves a full-fledged comeback a la Stallone and Schwarzenegger.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

The shot on the plane talking to Church was awful, like a terrible transfer from film to digital.

Re: The Expendables 2 (West, 2012) — The Reviews Thread
 

For a film with a production budget of $100 million, the film's terrible post production work makes it look like a direct-to-video production at times.