My Review of "The Expendables 3"

The Expendables 3 came out back in 2014 and I honestly can't tell you why it took me this long to finally see this one. I've seen the first two Expendables movies and they were okay movies. They weren't anything to write home about but I kind of remember liking them way back when they first came out. Well that's a really blurry memory so maybe I didn't enjoy them quite as much as I remember.

This movie starts out with the old gang of mercenaries on a mission. There's some story behind that mission but I can't really remember it. It's full of over the top action and I guess that's what's the point. This movie franchise has always been about bringing back old action stars to make an old fashion action movie. I couldn't tell you what the last two movies were about either. They were a blur of action sequences that I pretty much forgot.

Anyways one of his crew members comes upon some information that opens up the plot. The Expendables were founded by two people, the main character Barney and some guy named Stonebanks. Apparently they had thought Stonebanks had died but he's still living and he's trying to basically kill the rest of the Expendables.

Here's where the similarities to The Fast and the Furious franchise comes in. Barney cares about his friends and Caesar, one of the members of his team is put in the hospital because of Stonebanks he gets scared. He doesn't want to risk his group of friends because they're "family".

He opts to hire on some new members to eliminate Stonebanks. Here he goes out with his old friend Bonaparte to recruit some young blood. It's kind of weird because we all know that Expendables has always been a group of old veterans and this kind of goes against the grain of what the whole franchise is about.

So Barney eventually gets this new cast to help him out to get rid of Stonebanks and I guess the movie really starts from there but that's a lot of movie to go through to even get to this part. We obviously know that the old cast are a more significant role in this movie so they eventually join up. Their reunion is really obvious but it's a nice little moment in the movie because we've had this same group for 2 movies already (even though I don't really remember the old movies).

The whole franchise has kind of been about friendship so it's not totally off brand to be referring the group as a family. Still the new group of Expendables kind of makes me feel as though they're ready to reboot the franchise with the kids that they just recruited. Of course this movie came out back in 2014 and I haven't heard anything about any plans of an Expendables 4 movie. They did leave room for another movie that doesn't necessarily have to have the old characters. There's also a chance that they could do a side story instead of a full on Expendables movie.

Still there's a lot of jokes thrown around throughout the movie. There's a few new special characters that are introduced in this movie that are played by some big stars. I like how they make fun of some of these actors through dramatic irony in the dialogue they use. It's definitely fully aware of itself and I think that's where most of the fun comes from.

I have to say one of the standout new characters in this movie is Galgo played by Antonio Banderas. He stole a few of the scenes and you can tell that he had a lot of fun playing his character. It was as if the role was perfectly written for him.

Overall, I did enjoy this movie but it wasn't spectacular. If you're a fan of a lot of old action movies I think you'll be in on the joke and have a great time. I know it really helped to know who the actors are to enjoy this movie. I have to give this movie a 7.5 out of 10. I really had a good time with this one and I am actually tempted to watch the old movies again.