Premiere Screening of The Expendables 3

Those who have watched The Expendables 1 and 2 got the good news earlier this year that its 3rd movie will be releasing during summer 2014. Directed by Patrick Hughes and starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Dolph Lundgren, obviously they look like teaming up like never before.

The Expendables 3 brings in new young faces into the picture. This union of both old and young generation actors will not disappoint you if you are looking for some action pack entertainment this weekend. But comparing to the other movies in this summer, Expendables 3 will not make a strong standout. Indeed this movie will give you some dramatic and compelling scenes with many familiar senior faces, but will not be exciting as expected.

The story begins with the Barney and the crew fighting a train full of soldiers to save Doctor Death (Wesley Snipes) who in prison for assassination. Doctor Death is introduced as a co-founder of Expendables team way back and as the most  skillful man in using knives (which obviously Lee Christmas is not in favor). Following their rescue mission they are on their way to stop a top drug and arms dealer, only to find that the man they search is another co-founder of Expendables go wrong. Barney believed Conrad Stonebanks (drug dealer) was killed by him years back, yet this surprise leaves him no choice but to believe his team is not capable of bringing Stonebanks down. Barney replaces his whole group of old friends with a young set of combat trained mercenaries, against his friends' will. Obviously as we all expect at the end, they all end up joining together to defeat Conrad Stonebanks.

One of the main things you will remember is that Bruce Willis is missing from this reunion. And Harrison Ford on the other hand is replacing him as a CIA Operations Officer who is after Conrad Stonebanks and orders Barney to bring him alive so he can be taken to the Hague. Although there are so many of the familiar faces keep turning up in the chase of Stonebanks, but the need for such number of people are not clearly justified. The final result could have easily be gained with the help of Barney's group than going for new recruitment. 

Jason Stathom was not given much of space or time to shine in this movie. Yet to his surprise he finds himself a worthy opponent (Doctor Death) who is talented in the same field as he is (which in the beginning he denies to agree with). Wesley Snipes again is having a comeback into Hollywood, but does not prove that the viewers really missed him much. Nevertheless he has been given some dashing dialogues in several scenes, clearly proving this is a Stallone movie.

Mel Gibson as Conrad Stonebanks is noteworthy, as he proves again he is not too old for the golden screen. Him as the villain is a great choice, and he is amazing as the ruthless criminal with blood lust. His final battle with Barney is pretty much overacting on Stallon's part but will leave you with some good memories of Mel Gibson. When comparing to the previous two movies, this third sequel carries loads of big guns and massive explosions although the quality of entertainment had gone down. 

The four young recruits sounds too fascinating in the beginning, hence apart from the chica named Luna (Ronda Rousey) and stubborn soldier John (Kellan Lutz) the others do not show any remarkable performance. All that new bee, the expertise hacker and mount climber does is saving himself from falling down into a unused lift, while the other nine people fight against an entire army.

In addition its good to see Antonio Banderas back in the game in a jolly good mood in Expendables 3. He brings much of humor into this enthralling movie. His sleek movements when he jump here and there with the Mexican music at the background will take back you to some memories of Once Upon a Time in Mexico.  But  Jet Li on the other hand has not given more than three lines to say (may be because Antonio Banderas is talkative the whole time), so you end up thinking what will happen to his character if there is any new Expendable movie to come in the future. 

Overall the movie is full of gun fights, killing, explosions and massive destruction more or less the same to previous movies, but they have taken it into whole new level by bringing in entire army against 10 people. You will enjoy the movie, if you are a person who loves action movies. But if there is ever another sequel coming in the future they must stop bringing in so many characters in. It clashes with the flow since the viewers are to remember who runs after who and why they need Expendables when they have so many government officials and youngsters involved to finish one man. 


Nevertheless you will have a good time because it has a happy ending as always, having zero losses in Expendables team (although Caesar was nearly killed). And it is quiet humorous than the previous one, so there is more room for you to enjoy The Expendables 3.    

As final note I would like to thank Nuffnang team for giving me a chance to catch up the premiere screening. And not forgetting to thank Lifestyle magazine for their exclusive merchandise giveaway that happened during the Expendable 3 premiere screening. Muchas gracias!

Director : Patrick Hughes

Starring : Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren

Running Time : 126 minutes

Rating: 5/10 

Premiere Location : TGV, 1 Utama