Posted in: Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: Expend4bles, expendables, film, lionsgate

Expend4bles Star Shares His Thoughts on the Film's Reception

Expend4bles star Dolph Lundgren is sharing his thoughts on the reception of the fourth installment and what could have been done differently.

It's been a few months since the release of Expend4bles, which, unfortunately, wasn't received well by moviegoers or critics. In fact, the film's high-budget production costs (which exceeded $100 million) only managed to earn $50 million back during its run, displaying some potential signs of audience fatigue for the Expendables franchise.

But why did the fourth film experience such a fall-off? Was it a result of Sylvester Stallone's limited involvement? The strikes that halted promotional activities? A rough script? Well, according to one of the film's actors, it might have been a little bit of everything.

Expend4bles Star Dolph Lundgren on Why the Film Struggled to Find its Footing

When speaking to Screen Rant about the film's reception, actor Dolph Lundgren admitted that he had a few qualms with the movie, "I didn't read the reviews [for Expend4bles] because I kind of knew what they were gonna say. 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, so I think the problem was with the script, and then the director was replaced, like, a month before shooting."

Lundgren then elaborated, "So between those two things — it's hard to make a really good movie, and I also think that the originals, the first two especially, it was kind of about the team. It was about a team effort, and some of that got lost, so I was sad to see go that way. Because 50 was in it, he was great, and Megan Fox they were all good assets. 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."

Now that we've all had plenty of time to contemplate the highs and lows of the franchise, did you enjoy Expend4bles?

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