THE EXPENDABLES 3 (2014): A Bloated, Bloodless Action Sequel

There’s a point at which nostalgia stops being fun and starts feeling like exploitation. With The Expendables 3, that line is crossed, trampled on, and left in the dust. What began in 2010 as a tongue-in-cheek love letter to ‘80s and ‘90s action cinema—a franchise designed to unite aging titans like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis for one last hurrah—has, by its third installment, devolved into a joyless, overstuffed, and shockingly tame slog.

If The Expendables movies are meant to be celebrations of high-octane action and unapologetic machismo, then The Expendables 3 is the wake after the party. It’s a movie that promises big explosions and big stars but delivers little more than a bloated runtime, lifeless fight sequences, and a cast that feels as though they’d rather be anywhere else. Not even the charisma of Arnold Schwarzenegger—who makes a glorified cameo here—can save this third outing from being a bloodless and soulless disaster.

A PG-13 Action Movie That Forgets Its Audience

The biggest and most baffling misstep in The Expendables 3 is its PG-13 rating. For a series that was built on the promise of gritty, R-rated action—a throwback to the glory days of Commando, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Die Hard—toning it down for a younger audience feels like a betrayal. What made the first Expendables moderately entertaining was its unapologetic embrace of old-school carnage: exploding heads, over-the-top violence, and cheesy one-liners delivered by legends who built their careers on those very things.

In The Expendables 3, the action feels neutered. Bloodless gunfights, limp punches, and CGI explosions take the place of visceral, high-impact choreography. The film’s toothless approach strips away any sense of danger or excitement, making the action sequences dull and weightless. Watching Schwarzenegger’s iconic Terminator 2: Judgment Day or Predator fight scenes, you feel every hit, every explosion, every life-or-death moment. In The Expendables 3, the stakes are nonexistent, and the thrills are nowhere to be found.

An Overcrowded Cast That Spreads Itself Too Thin

One of the core draws of The Expendables franchise has always been its ensemble cast of action icons. The first two films managed to strike a decent balance, giving Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, and others enough room to shine. But The Expendables 3 suffers from severe action hero overcrowding, cramming in so many characters that none of them get the attention they deserve.

Returning players like Stallone (as Barney Ross), Statham (as Lee Christmas), and Dolph Lundgren (as Gunner Jensen) feel like they’re phoning it in, while franchise newcomer Mel Gibson, playing the villainous Conrad Stonebanks, does his best to bring some menace to the film but is hampered by a generic script. Then there’s the inclusion of a “new generation” of Expendables—Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, and Victor Ortiz—who are so bland and charisma-free that they suck the life out of every scene they’re in.

And then there’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. In The Expendables 3, he reprises his role as Trench Mauser, a character that has been relegated to a glorified cameo. Schwarzenegger appears in a handful of scenes, delivering a few forgettable one-liners in his trademark Austrian accent, but he’s essentially an afterthought. Compare this to his explosive presence in Commando or his perfectly calculated performance as the T-800 in The Terminator. Here, Arnold looks like he’s just killing time until his next coffee break.

The inclusion of Harrison Ford as Drummer, a CIA operative who replaces Bruce Willis’s Church, should have been exciting. Instead, Ford spends most of his screen time barking orders from a helicopter, his presence wasted on a role that could have been filled by any generic character actor.

A Script That’s All Filler, No Killer

The plot of The Expendables 3 is, like its action, a lifeless retread of better movies. Barney Ross decides to retire his old team after an early mission goes wrong, replacing them with a younger crew of mercenaries. Of course, this doesn’t sit well with the original team, and when the young blood predictably gets captured by the villain, the old crew has to come out of retirement for one last showdown.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same tired action movie trope we’ve seen dozens of times before. Worse, the script spends far too much time introducing and developing the new recruits, sidelining the very legends the audience came to see. Who watches The Expendables for Kellan Lutz? Nobody.

The humor also falls flat, with cringe-inducing one-liners and jokes that feel more forced than fun. Even Schwarzenegger’s signature charm is wasted on groan-worthy dialogue, such as a half-hearted callback to The Terminator’s “Get to the chopper!” Instead of delivering it with the gravitas or cheeky self-awareness he’s known for, it feels like Arnold is bored—because honestly, who wouldn’t be with this material?

The Decline of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Role

It’s worth noting that while Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t the star of the Expendables franchise, his presence in the first two films added a touch of excitement. In The Expendables 2, his appearance alongside Stallone and Bruce Willis in a gunfight felt like an action fan’s dream come true—a moment decades in the making.

In The Expendables 3, however, Schwarzenegger feels like an afterthought. His role as Trench is little more than an extended cameo, and the film doesn’t give him anything meaningful to do. It’s frustrating to see an actor who redefined action movies reduced to a background character in a movie that doesn’t even deliver good action. Watching Arnold in this film makes you long for the days of Predator or True Lies, when he commanded the screen and elevated even the most absurd premises with his larger-than-life persona.

Final Thoughts: A Franchise Running on Empty

The Expendables 3 is a joyless, bloodless, and overstuffed action film that fails to live up to its predecessors, let alone the legacy of the stars it tries to celebrate. By toning down the violence, bloating the cast, and sidelining the very icons that made the franchise appealing, this sequel betrays everything that made The Expendables concept fun in the first place.

For Arnold Schwarzenegger fans, this is an especially tough pill to swallow. The man who gave us unforgettable moments in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Commando deserves better than this half-hearted franchise cash grab. If you’re craving vintage Arnold, skip The Expendables 3 and revisit the classics—or even his underrated comeback films like Maggie or The Last Stand.

As for The Expendables 3, this entry proves that sometimes, it’s better to let old heroes ride off into the sunset rather than drag them into the muck of mediocrity. Unfortunately, this sequel doesn’t just feel like a farewell—it feels like a funeral.