Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) decides to recruit newer, younger members to the Expendables team for a personal battle: to take down Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), the Expendables co-founder and notorious arms trader who is determined to destroy the team. Expendables members returning from the previous movies include knife expert Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), demolitions expert Toll Road (Randy Couture), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) and barrel-weapons specialist Hale Caeser (Terry Crews). Former Expendable Yin Yang (Jet Li) and mercenary Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) also appear.
The newer recruits include: former Navy SEAL John Smilee (Kellan Lutz), nightclub bouncer Luna (Ronda Rousey), computer expert Thorn (Glen Powell) and weapons expert Mars (Victor Ortiz). Also new to the team are skilled sharpshooter Galgo (Antonio Banderas) and original Expendables member Doc (Wesley Snipes), who is busted out of prison during the movie's opening. Also new to the movie are CIA operative Drummer (Harrison Ford) and mercenary recruiter Bonaparte (Kelsey Grammar).
This isn't exactly Oscar material we're dealing with here. The whole point of this franchise is to see famous action stars get together, spew out their famous lines, and for us the audience to watch $#&! blow up amid all the excessive violence and blood. Why? BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME....that's why. And that's how action movies used to be made. Does this movie succeed on it's rather simple terms? Well....yes and no.
Yes in that it does feature action stars spewing out their catchphrases and stuff exploding.
No, in that it partially abandons why this franchise even existed in the first place. The 'Expendables' movies were meant to be throwbacks to the ultra-violent action movies of the 80s and 90s. Stallone wanted this one to appeal to a younger and broader audience, so this is the first in the franchise to be rated PG-13. The first two 'Expendables' reveled in their R-ratings, with tons of bloody violence to go around. Not really a good sign for a franchise all about violent excess to tone things down to a lower rating, but the PG-13 rating isn't a deal breaker for someone like me. Heck, 'Live Free or Die Hard' is the only one in that series with a PG-13 rating and in my opinion it's the second best 'Die Hard' movie. 'Expendables 3' still does feature a lot of violence and some awesome action scenes....but there's no blood. At all. Even as knives are thrown into henchman and throats are being sliced, not a drop of blood is spilled because of that PG-13 rating. Kinda like how 'World War Z' is a PG-13 rated zombie movie that has no blood being spilled either (yet blood was spilled and brains were eaten in the PG-13 'Warm Bodies). This really should have just stuck to the status quo and stayed with an R rating. Without all the excessive, over the top blood and carnage the movie is missing a certain je ne sai quoi.
Rating aside, the movie itself is all right. It isn't as good or as fun as the previous two 'Expendables' movies. The cast appears to be having fun and the new additions to the cast (for the most part) do very well in their roles, particularly Kelsey Grammer as the mercenary recruiter Bonaparte. And it still does feature some awesome action scenes, and some funny moments as Stallone and Schwarzenegger reference a few of their other movies. But it's not without it's problems. Half of the fight scenes I could barely tell what was going on because of the frenetic "Bourne Identity"/"Hunger Games" style editing, but it does get clearer and clearer as the movie progresses. It also could've been maybe twenty minutes shorter, but perhaps I'm only complaining about the movie's length because of the eight, full-length trailers that came before the movie. I love watching trailers and I make sure I'm on time to a movie to be able to watch all of them. But eight? My goodness. Just play three or four and then start the movie all ready.
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