The Expendables 2 Opening Analysis

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 2 is an action film which involves a special force military team, which are on a mission to save a hostage from being killed. They use unusual ways to do this, for example they drive in with three armored trucks, and start shooting people to get through.

The Characters are violent and deadly, in the scene it shows that they are holding different weapons, which shows that they have different skills and are independent to each other. Also they seem like they are close to each other and trust each other with their lives, which helps us as the audience relate more to them. The audience can also recognize the main characters as they have a great introduction to the film. They come in three armored vehicles which have loads of soldiers in it which are heavily armed and are going into a burning town. Also the audience can tell that they are the main characters because they show them all working as a team. It also tells the audience that if they work as a team they can do anything which is dangerous and is likely to kill them in real life which is an classic action cliche. Another way they show that they are the main characters is by the close up shots on them, this gives the audience a good judgement on the characters by the way they act in the situation and to each other.

The sound that they use involves lots of explosions and guns firing to add effect through violent scenes. They also use a lot of verbal communication which gives the scene more of an action feeling. It also adds effect to the atmosphere because it shows that the team is under fire and is in a lot of danger. The sound is very important within an action film, because without the sound it wont sound very exciting or like its an action film. They use degetic sound to make it sound like that they are in the middle of a gun fight.and they are being fired upon. Also the characters uses a lot of diegetic sound like shouting to the other person to make it sound intense and like they are in danger. This makes the audience feel like they are in the action and are being shouted at by the characters which gets them more excited. This also shows that it is a action genre film because of the intense action like gunfire and explosions. The music which is non-diegetic sounds very intense and fast paced. It makes it sound like they are in a hurry to save the hostage.

The shots they use are mostly medium and long shots which constantly overlap with each other to help add effect to the surroundings and emphasis to the verbal communication between the protagonists. There is also few amount of close ups on the characters to show what they think of the situation and how they are coping with it. It shows a little bit of the characters personality so people can see how they react to the situations. For example one if the characters who are driving are smiling and laughing, this shows that he enjoys being endangered and has no fear. An establishing shot is used to show the setting of where the intro takes place. It shows that the characters are in a desert in the middle of know where, and there is an army base which is heavily guarded by soldiers. It is based in the desert because it shows the audience that it is not supposed to be found and it is hidden away from civilization. This also makes it more like a real setting where the army would be, for example soldiers in Afghanistan are usually based in the desert, they do this in the film so the audience can then feel like they based the setting in real life conditions. The tracking shots is used to follow the characters in the vehicle, this makes the audience feel like they are in the vehicle with them and engages them to feel what the soldiers are feeling like.

You can tell that it is an action film because there are lots of explosions and gunfire. Also they are shouting to each other to make the scene look more intense and fast paced. This gets people more excited about the movie. Also they wear army uniform which makes them stand out to the other characters, it also says that they are soldiers. You can also see that it is an action film by the vehicles that are driving. This is shown by the vehicles being covered in heavy armor so no bullets can get through. This is typical of the genre because the director wants to show you that these soldiers are unstoppable and know what they are doing, so when they get into a fight they aren't  going to get hurt badly they are going to get a scratch on their face and carry on like nothing happened. Also the hero usually doesn't get hurt badly until the end, when they fight the person who they have been after the whole time. So if there is an explosion at a gas station and it is in the middle of the film, usually they wont get hurt they will only get a scratch, which shows they are really tough. However at the end they will get broken bones and deep cuts which will stop them from beating the guy up, until the very end when he is about to get killed, he suddenly gets a weapon or uses his fighting skills and counters the attack leading to the enemy being killed. This is a typical cliche in action movies, and has been used in a lot of movies.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNmtTC8PMFI&feature=player_detailpage