The Expendables 2

Expendables 2 was released on August 13, 2012 with an estimated 100 million dollar budget yet grossed over 310 million worldwide as the second installment of the series.

Plot

The mercenary group leader Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) is forced to accept a CIA mission from Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) which consists of the team heading down to seek an item from a crashed airplane in Albania. He sends his finest technical expert Maggie Chan (Yu Nan) along.

With the help of Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Hale Ceased (Terry Crews), Toll Road (Randy Couture), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), and Billy (Liam Hemsworth), the team manages to retrieve this item only to then face yet another problem: ambush.

International criminal and arms dealer Jean Vilain (Jean Claude Van Damme) and deputy Hector (Scott Adkins) capture one of the Expendables to use as bait. Of course, Vilain and his mercenary group, Sangs, are also eyeballing the item retrieved in this downed airplane.

With the life of one of their own hanging in the balance of a tense atmosphere does Barney succumb to the wants of this criminal mastermind in hopes of saving Billy who he managed to draw closer to. Disarmed and helpless does Vilain prove his ruthless and unstable ways by mercilessly killing his hostage, taking this item and disbanding into the unknown.

Now with revenge being thirsted by the members of the Expendables and a need to save the world from a destructive weapon do they venture out in hopes of ending Vilain's reign.

Overall

Can I start off by saying how very frustrated I was that Jet Li only had a small part in the beginning? From the first installment of this series, Yin Yang - Jet's character - had a semi-active role as a member of the Expendables. A serious complaint? Too many new, senseless character additions such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris. Didn't appreciate either of them whatsoever.

With that out of the way, the plot was rather decent. Liam Hemsworth's character Billy was basically one who had a connection with Barney Ross and reminded him of his younger self. I see why revenge was a big part of this plot line as Barney willed to avenge Billy's death. Still playing with a cliche in my defense.

Can I also state that humor and action has its limits? There were too many references to movies like Terminator, Rambo and Die Hard due to Arnold, Bruce and Sylvester's past movie gigs. That was a total turn off.

Now I'll go on to state that this was a decent movie, maybe something to leave on as background noise as you do more important things. The only good part about this happened to be a collection of amazing action scenes that make you cringe (those are the best kind) and man candy knife specialist Jason Statham