The Expendables 2 (2012) - Movie Review

Expendables 2 was a lot better than the first movie, the number of action stars who were cast in this movie increased and for the better. I like the addition of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Liam Hemsworth, Chuck Norris and Nan Yu to this movie; as well as the expanded roles of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. The plot was better than the first movie as well.

The script itself could have been better, at least as far as some of the dialogue, but for the most part was pretty satisfying. I have mixed feelings about some of the actors saying lines that the another actor said in other movie series. For instance, Bruce Willis says "I'll be back" to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arnold says "Yippee-ki-yay."

I have several scenes I like in this movie, but I will only describe three.

The first scene I liked, or really the first part of a scene I liked was the end of the rescue scene at the beginning of the movie. The Expendables are sent to rescue Dr. Zhou (Wenbo Li), they complete the mission, but also rescue Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger). To escape the compound that Dr. Zhou was being held hostage in the Expendables use some powerlines as ziplines. Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) end up on the ground surrounded by enemy soldiers, they are ordered to drop their weapons and they do, Barney holds his index finger pointed out like a gun and does the motion of shooting the soldiers with his finger. The soldiers are shot but by a sniper named Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth).

My next favorite scene is when the Expendables are on their plane heading to Albania. Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) attempts to flirt with Maggie (Nan Yu), but she rebuffs him. Maggie, however, befriends Billy the Kid just to spite Gunnar. Billy tells Maggie why he left the Army and it pretty much effects every member in the exact same way, not a dry eye was had within ear shot.

Another favorite scene is after Billy is killed by Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) the Expendables vow to hunt Vilain down. The Expendables end up staying the night in a mock-New York City training center somewhere in Eastern Europe, probably a hold over from the Cold War. The next morning as everyone is getting ready to attack Vilain's group, Gunnar is still asleep on the floor snoring away. Barney yells out and wakes Gunnar up, to which Gunnar bellows "You Rang". I found this to be very hilarious.

I won't tell you how this movie ends because it was that good. I will tell you that Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis played a huge role in the finale of the movie.

I give this 9 stars out of 10. The blood still looked fake.