The Expendables 4 - review. The movie is so clumsy, that John Wick beats them by standing still

I don't believe that all action movies have to be exquisite and elegant like in John Wick. There’s room for another category of movies from this genre – crude productions, in which fights do not look too realistic, but which also give unpretentious joy. I'm always happy to see the familiar faces of Sylvester Stallone or Jason Statham fighting for the lives of innocents, but... not in productions like The Expendables 4. I didn't expect that the fourth installment of the series with old veterans would turn out to be such a nightmare.

The Team RR from Pokemon would be more interesting

The script for The Expendables 4 is very hard to follow. That is, the action is understandable, but the list of completely exaggerated elements turns out to be enormous. The dialogues are written with the grace of an angry African elephant, the plot twists are predictable and they defy the non-existent logic. In addition, the franchise has been turned into a cash machine that spits out dollars on demand.

I realize what the assumptions behind this series were. It gathered the biggest action stars and made them compete against each other – because, of course, not everyone is part of the titular team, some actors had to play the villains. But then why was Megan Fox involved? She's not just a partner of one of the heroes, but she also became part of the Expendables(?).

In fact, Fox is one of the most important characters, a commander with a rifle in her hand, and make-up on her face. I'm in favor of introducing strong women into the film, but it has to make sense. Introducing a second Pamela Anderson into The Expendables and portraying her as a tough girl on par with Jason Statham is absurd. The creators are trying to sell us feminist slogans, but they clearly treat Fox's character as a sexual object – they cannot decide whether Gina, played by her, should be a characterless, pretty girl, or rather a real mercenary.

These elements simply don't work together. Why is Gina the most modestly dressed person during the battles? Where's her bulletproof vest? Besides, what kind of acting resume does Fox have? Has she played tough women in the past who went down in the history of cinema or at least became memorable? Sigourney Weaver (Alien), Charlize Theron (Atomic Blonde) or Emily Blunt (Sicario, Edge of Tomorrow) would fit much better.

The Expendables 4, dir. Scott Waugh, Lionsgate 2023.

Plastic world of mercenaries

Well, you came here to watch the firefights and laugh at the dry jokes, right? So let's leave Fox and focus on the fireworks that The Expendables 4 was supposed to deliver – unfortunately, these are not even sparklers. The action scenes have been terribly edited, and the computer effects stick out, looking like they are straight from video games from 20 years ago. It's hard to believe the world of such heroes is made so poorly.

The film's budget was $100 million – where did it all go? Was it all spent on the cast? If only the best of the best were here... Meanwhile, compared to the previous installments, I get the impression that we got lower-tier acting. Of the returning faces, the only positive one is Statham, trying to find his way in badly-written dialog and extremely 'comical' scenes (like arguing with Gina about nothing – because it’s common knowledge that women fight for no reason; haha, funny). As for the new additions, Tony Jaa is excellent, playing an inconspicuous, smiling warrior – this convention has a certain lightness that is missing everywhere else.

You don't even know how painful it is to watch the explosions cause no damage what so ever, in a way that conflicts the laws of physics. The sky has an unnatural color, and the green screen behind the heroes is obvious. I've seen more realistic environments in a paintball field.

Nothing makes sense here. Neither in terms of plot, nor technicalities, nor in terms of acting (although I understand that it’s difficult to act out such poorly written scenes). The ending, which was intended to be a light-hearted joke, even makes the main characters seem like villains. And speaking of the bad guys, the plot is predictable in its absurdity. This version of The Expendables has no reason to exist, because today we enjoy a different type of action movies. John Wick doesn’t have to move a finger. His rivals did all the work for him.

OUR SCORE: 2/10

Krzysztof Lewandowski

Krzysztof Lewandowski

He studied journalism, Polish philology, and psychology at UKSW, UW, and SWPS. There he wrote, among other things, a diploma thesis dedicated to the contemporary role of black-and-white cinema. Has been working at GRYOnline.pl since August 2021. Writes articles and reviews of games, movies, and series, and since July 2023, he is a content creator specialist in the Paid Products department. He is the author of the scientific article "Dynamika internetu a zachowania jezykowe" published in the book "Relacje w cyberprzestrzeni". He co-created a dictionary of local names of the Wawer district of Warsaw. Tried his hand at poetry, but in the future he would prefer to write a novel. Started writing online on the GameExe.pl portal at the age of 14. First, he reviewed books, but he didn't stop there and on various Internet portals he reviewed games, movies, series, and comics. He likes surrealist motifs and RPGs the most.