Seems that this movie was a case of being one that everybody wanted to like and love and therefore it's hard to admit for most people that this just isn't being a very good movie. By all rights it should had been a big, fun action flick, that could had worked as a throwback to the '80's, with lots of the big action movie stars from that era in it as well but it just doesn't works out as such.
So many problems with this movie, I don't know where to being. Guess it's best to start of with the most obvious thing; the story. No, this movie does not have a very good story in it. So what, you might say or think. After all, this is a action-flick, who needs story? Well, you always need at least something to base your action scenes around and you at least have to be taken by its characters or its main plot. There has to be a reason to root for the main characters and cheer when the main bad guy gets killed and the hero(es) saves the day! There is just however none of that present in this movie unfortunately.
There besides isn't really being a pleasant flow to the movie and its story. It seemed as if some action scenes were simply thrown in and don't serve a purpose at all. It actually in a weird way slows the movie down and makes it somewhat of a boring one at times. I personally couldn't wait for this movie to end, even though its only being 103 minutes short.
Perhaps it also was due to it that I just wasn't very impressed with the movie its action. It was shockingly poorly directed at times! I say shockingly, since the movie actually got directed by Sylvester Stallone, who had no problems with doing action scenes before. After all, this is the guy who also directed "Rambo", just 2 years prior to this movie, which was an action movie that I absolutely loved and was being everything that this movie should had been as well but just wasn't.
So is it at least fun to watch all of the big action movie stars from the past and present in this? Not really. It's at least not being somewhat to get terribly excited about, even though it on paper looks awesome. Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis all in one movie, how could it not work out as anything awesome? Well, mostly because most of them get absolutely nothing to do in this movie. It tries to present itself as a team movie but in fact the movie isn't at all about them working together. All of the egos in this movie are far too big for that and besides, the movie is mostly focusing purely on Stallone and Stratham, who by far have the most screen time in this and are the only ones doing some true action related stuff and have some character development.
Reason why I also wasn't being very entertained by this movie was because it just wasn't being a very fun one to watch. The supposedly comical dialog for the movie was awful and the movie was also lacking a good visual style to it. The movie is an incredibly dark one and I couldn't even always tell what was going on exactly. It might sound strange but a little bit more bright colors could had added so much to the movie its fun and entertainment factor. Perhaps they were more focused on trying to pass this as a legit action flick, while in fact it seemed to be a more suitable thing for this movie to not take itself as serious as it did.
A thing that worked also distracting for me was its Brian Tyler musical score. It was some incredibly formulaic stuff, that sounded like it got composed before the movie even finished shooting. It just didn't suited the movie and its action sequences in particular all that well.
It really isn't a good throwback to the '80's and also far too lacking as a genre movie in general. Lets hope the sequel does everything right, this one did wrong! If that's the case, then its going to be something absolutely awesome!
5/10
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