"The Expendables 2" Movie Review

Emma Yeager, author of the review "The Expendables 2 is spent", was not enthralled by "The Expendables 2". The review, which can be found on Silver Chips Online, had very little positive things to say about the film, and from the get go, made it clear that the film was both "dull" and "dated".

The review began by outlining the plot, setting, and characters in the film, and after introducing the gist of the film, begins sharing her opinions on it. First, she comments on how women are portrayed by the writers, and then goes on to critique the acting, in particular, the acting of Sylvester Stallone. Before she concludes the article, she does give out a rare compliment to the film, saying that some of the the pure action scenes, are in fact, fairly entertaining.

Yeager's main problem with the film seemed to be the general theme of it. After all, the concept of American action heroes saving the world from a Russian super-villain is hardly an original one. The incessant violence in the film also seems to have left a bad taste in her mouth, as she several times referenced back to it being "ceaseless", and "gory". Surprisingly, for a review of an action movie, very little time was spent evaluating the editing and special effects of the film, something that had to undoubtedly be a strength of "The Expendables 2". Perhaps this was because she wanted to paint a negative picture of the film, but whatever reason, more than two lines should have been spent on it. Luckily for the readers, she does not reveal anything too spoiler-like in the review, but does give ample information to know what it is for the most part about.

The quarterly movie assignment should give us a considerable amount of freedom, as CAP kids do best when not restricted to a tight set of guidelines. That is not to say that we should have no guidelines, though. Having a base set of questions that need to be answered would be mutually beneficial, as the students would not become sidetracked into an entirely different project, and the teacher's could actually  have something to grade. However, it is key that we are given more freedom than we were last year, both in terms of what movie to watch and how to review it, as they could get to be a chore instead of actually watching and enjoying a film.

Here's the link to my annotated review:

http://diigo.com/0sv3u