Megan Fox teams up with action superstar Jason Statham in the $100 million budget film.

The Expendables 4 (Vietnamese title: The Expendables 4) is an 18+ action film that continues the success of the previous 3 parts of the mercenary series.

The Expendables 4 movie trailer

Genre: Action

Director: Scott Waugh

Cast: Jason Statham, 50 Cent, Megan Fox, Sylvester Stallone, Iko Uwais, Tony Jaa, Dolph Lundgren

Score on IMDb: 5.1/10

Even if you have not watched the previous 3 parts, you can still grasp the developments of part 4. Because the film exploits content in the old action style, focusing mainly on action scenes. This time, the leader of the group is still Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone). However, in season 4, the role focuses on Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) after an incident happens to Barney.

Jason Statham is truly a hero in the group

If before, this famous action franchise had the main theme “Rookie meets veteran”, then part 4, the veteran of the squad, creates a spectacular turnaround. When talking about Barney Ross, members always consider him the supreme leader and hero of the group. Even though his enemies were everywhere, his brothers were always devoted to him. That’s why when Barney called Lee Christmas to help him get the ring back, he didn’t care about the danger and soon realized he had been… deceived.

The two key figures of the group are Barney Ross and Lee Christmas

The screenplay does not have too many confusing situations. This time, Barney’s squad is tasked with retrieving a nuclear bomb detonation switch from Rahmat – a man who plans to cause chaos in the world by indirectly creating World War III. Behind Rahmat is a tycoon whose identity has been hidden for a long time.

Villain Rahmat hasn’t shown many moves yet

Right in the opening details of the film, the audience enjoys the attack of the arms smuggler Rahmat. Although Barney’s group accepted the mission and set out to steal the detonator from Rahmat, they failed. Something unfortunate happened to the whole group, and from there the journey of revenge began.

Dense action scenes with fast and strong intensity are continuously deployed to create a film circuit that satisfies the tastes of action movie fans. From gunfights, bomb explosions, knives, and martial arts, all are gathered to please the audience of this movie genre. Even the realism of some 18+ scenes makes viewers feel… spine-tingling. However, the film cannot avoid details that are “bad” in logic. Even the final “spin” to shock the audience was not really convincing. The evil side has not really shown equality, it is still quite lackluster. The familiar, easy-to-see content in the action movie segment makes the story less attractive to match the expectation of being a “Hollywood golden egg” this year.

The film invested 100 million USD for action scenes and special effects

Investing up to 100 million USD helps the film create many attractive action scenes. The majestic setting and beautiful effects in the final scene satisfy viewers. However, international film critics have little favor for part 4 of the series. Many writers criticized both the script and the image for the return after 9 years of the Expendables since part 3 in 2014.

A typical example of this is the review from Cinema Blend: “The Expendables 4” is a testament to an outdated and disappointing film series in every aspect. The quality of the editing is sketchy, like it was cut from ancient videos from 1995. As for the content, the characters are built in a naive and bland way.

The Expendables 4’s strength is the appearance of the stars, the most prominent of which are superstar Jason Statham and “𝓈ℯ𝓍 bomb” Megan Fox.

Superstar Jason Statham brings familiar action movies

Taking on the central male role in part 4, hero Jason Statham is once again favored with a series of heavy action scenes. He portrays the image of an elite SAS veteran, from his close combat abilities to his masterful knife s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s. Besides, Jason also brought hot footage when having a love scene with Megan Fox.

Talking about this role, Jason once shared: “At first, we felt that Lee Christmas seemed a bit out of place in the story. For many reasons, Lee felt responsible for some of the events that had happened, he thought he needed to atone for his mistakes. And so, we brought Lee on this journey.”

“Hot statue” Megan Fox shows off her physical advantages and fighting power when transforming into a CIA agent

Meanwhile, Megan Fox plays Gina, a CIA agent and Lee Christmas’s girlfriend. The actress shows off her beautiful body and action scenes when taking on the role of temporary female leader. Although Gina and Christmas have both strong and passionate segments, the audience still feels the lack of climactic moments.

Sylvester Stallone faded in part 4

Besides, the cast includes famous faces including Sylvester Stallone – his name is closely associated with the Expendables film series . Talking about Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham shared: “Sylvester Stallone is the Expendables, and without him, I wouldn’t be sitting here today. He represents every aspect of this film, and without his presence, without his creativity, without him being the backbone, we all wouldn’t be. What is in this series?

The remaining cast of the squad is quite lackluster

The action star lineup brings together a series of famous names such as 50 Cent, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Andy Garcia… There is also a face named Levy Tran. She is a Vietnamese actress born in 1983, who has appeared in many big movies such as Fast and Furious 7, Thick Face, House on Haunted Hill.

Vietnamese actress Levy Tran participates in the film

However, the presence of this supporting cast is only dotted through a few action sequences that are not too impressive. It seems that all focus is on hero Jason Statham.

For Vietnamese audiences, the attention of part 4 is also placed on the music when the melody of BIGCITYBOI performed by Binz suddenly appeared in a Hollywood movie.

However, not every work criticized by film critics fails at the box office. Like the recent Fast & Furious movies (Too Fast and Furious) still made money despite being criticized. When movie critics continuously criticize The Expendables 4 , will the entertainment appeal of the names Megan Fox and hero Jason Statham save the revenue of this $100 million invested film?