Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give “new blood” a whole new meaning.
Expend4bles is widely regarded as the weakest entry in an already diminishing franchise. The plot is a formulaic, paint-by-numbers action thriller involving a nuclear bomb MacGuffin with zero surprises or emotional weight. The acting ranges from phoned-in to cartoonishly flat, with even veterans like Stallone given little to work with. Cinematography relies on choppy editing, murky lighting, and generic action staging that fails to capitalize on its set pieces. Novelty is essentially zero — it recycles the same beats as its predecessors while adding nothing distinctive; even the novelty of the original ensemble concept has long since worn out. The ending is predictable and hollow, offering no satisfying payoff. A deeply formulaic entry that represents the franchise at its most creatively bankrupt.