The latest addition to the ‘Expendables‘ series has performed at an all-time low at both the box office and critics table. The previous ‘Expendables 3′ also didn’t perform quite well and the series’ continuity seems uncertain.
Dolph Lundgren, who has played Gunner Jensen in the franchise, opens up about the signs that ‘Expend4bles‘ would fail. Even from the early stages of its development, the movie lacked the ‘it factor’.
Related: Dolph Lundgren Clarifies Doing The Ivan Drago Spin-Off
Sylvester Stallone Was Not Involved With The Script
Dolph Lundgren reveals one of the first hints about the failure lay in the script itself, a movie that has good enough action sequences isn’t complete without a good enough plot. Dolph explains to ScreenRant how his long-term colleague was barely present if not absent from the script-writing team: “That project had issues from the beginning, and it usually starts with the script, it really didn’t really have a good script. I’m not playing the lead, so it’s hard for me to weigh in on some of those issues, but I know Stallone wasn’t involved like he usually is. He just played a character in it, and when he’s in charge, the quality is going to be pretty good, it doesn’t drop below a certain level. But he wasn’t involved.”
Dolph also highlights some major issues with the production like how the director was changed in the last month without any notice, and the short-sighted decision to promote and release the movie during the SAG-AFTRA strikes, which resulted in limited involvement of some big labels of the franchise including Megan Fox and 50 Cent.
He says, “Also, the picture opened during the strike, which wasn’t very clever, so they couldn’t do any publicity. If you would have had a big star-studded premiere with Megan and 50 and Stallone and Statham, and the rest of them, myself, Andy Garcia, there would have been more eyeballs on it. And I’m sure it would have done better, but it’s too bad. I was disappointed.”
The movie was released nearly a decade after its preceding part, which resulted in the nostalgia disappearing from people’s minds. Combined with the lackluster plot, sub-par action scenes and lack of familiar franchise faces resulted in the gooey-unsavory soup of chaos which the audience found barely palatable.
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Is There Any Hope For The Series To Continue?
‘Expendables 4’ has received severe bashing both by critics and the audience this time around. The previous parts though containing mixed reviews managed to perform at the box office while ‘Expendables 4′ wasn’t able to do the same. The movie earned a gross of $51.1 million worldwide against its $100 million production budget. The movie has a meager rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.6/10 on IMDb.
However, Dolph also indicated Stallone might be working on the next part. The previously scrapped female spin-off, ‘The Expendabelles‘ might save the series too if the producers take it seriously.
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