Why So Blu?

Expend4bles (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Its franchise season over at Lionsgate. With new entries in the Saw, Expendables and Hunger Games series all delivering new entries this fall. For The Expendables, we have landed at number 4. The film quickly went to digital purchase/rental after underwhelming at the box office. And now, its here on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray not too long after that. Complete with an Atmos track, a commentary and a pair of featurettes, this one was released on November 21st. You can order a copy to own by using the paid Amazon Associates link following the review.

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Film

A new generation of stars join the world’s top action stars for an adrenaline-fueled adventure in Expend4bles. Reuniting as the team of elite mercenaries, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Sylvester Stallone are joined for the first time by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy Garcia. Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give “new blood” a whole new meaning.

The Expendables has always been to me a franchise that feels like it could have been so much more. A franchise that got severely lapped by the Fast & The Furious movies in terms of both what it set out to do and what it did well (Recognizable action stars pairing up for some of the biggest action movies around). The first film proving a bit of disappointment because it wasn’t what it should’ve been (Sly really needed to wait on Arnold and Bruce to be fully available). The second was probably ultimate version of this vision, though still just a solid action picture with big names. And of course it didn’t help that the third aimed for PG-13 and wasn’t very good at the end of the day.

Now, its been dug up for a 4th run after an Expendabelles spinoff never came to light. And, well, it certainly carries some of the hallmarks of the series decently, but doesn’t quite manage to escape the trashy action movie scope. Certainly not an awful watch or complete waste of time, it just doesn’t push any envelopes or the limits of the action sequences. This cast is probably the least amusing of the 4 movies, though Megan Fox does her best to earn her stripes and has some nice chemistry with Statham and Stallone. Heck, she and Statham probably what kept this movie a little more interesting than it could’ve been. There’s just not much here aside from “yeah, we made another one”.

I don’t want to completely dog the movie. There are some nice action beats at times and some of the exchanges in the film do deliver a little smirk. But, in totality, there’s little reason this movies does anything to prove why it needed to exist. You could say “cash grab”, but this series never truly was that, and a 4th entry never was going to do anything other than keeps its brand alive. And by making this one, it quite possibly killed it.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are from promotional images supplied by the studio, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: Expend4bles arrives with a pretty vivid and bold image on the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. There are lots of good color, emanating from some excellent contrast in the frame. It features strong depth and very fine texture and detail throughout the film.

Depth:  Depth of field is strong with good pushback showcasing lots of space in shootouts and fights as well as the scale of the sequences. Movement is natural and smooth with no issues of blur or jitter from any of the rapid camera or actor movements.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural but also help to well define some of the darkened interiors here. There is good use of contrast as well as shadow, maintaining much all of the information present. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors are strong and quite bold. Even the more natural, rustic ones have good flavor to them. HDR helps out in contrast with the blacks to add a big glow to display lights, sparks, fire, car/motorcycle lights, neon displays an more.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. Facial features and textures are visible as looking through piece of glass at an actor.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.

Audio

Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish, French

Dynamics: Expend4bles provides a loud and rampaging Atmos track. It has the volume set to some extreme action combat with loud gunfire, engines and explosions. Its mixed quite well with an effective heightened reality in any given environment.

Height: From above, you get some good ambiance building as well as things that fly above frame, debris, stray bullets and more.

Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer absolutely hits with maximum impact with gunfire, explosions, banging, crashing, glass shattering, fists connecting and more.

Surround Sound Presentation: From around the room you get plenty of good tracking to angle changes and offscreen activity. Sound travels with good, rolling power and room/environment building to good effect.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp.

Extras

Expend4bles comes with the standard Blu-ray edition and a redeemable digital code of the film.

Audio Commentary

• with Director Scott Waugh

Bigger, Badder, Bolder: The Expendables in Action (HD, 16:57) – A making of that takes us action piece to action piece in the film.

More Than A Team: New Blood Meets Old Blood (HD, 19:07) – This is a featurette focusing on the cast of the film.

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:52)

Summary

Expend4bles keeps following the descent from the apex of this series that was the second one. Technical merits on this disc are pretty high with a wonderful looking image and impacting Atmos track to make the viewing experience top notch. Extras are pretty solid considering what a quick kill this was at the box office. Fans probably want to wait for this to be $9.99 or something before completing their Expendables collection.

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