An ill-judged sequel that proved near-fatal for a hit franchise at least managed to deliver one saving grace

When it comes to the worst examples of a franchise fundamentally failing to understand its own audience, the decision to make The Expendables 3 a PG-13 movie with a cast of fresh faces taking up a huge amount of screentime definitely has to be up there in terms of sheer boneheaded decisions.

The entire selling point of the property was wish-fulfillment for action junkies delivered on a blockbuster scale, with fans flocking to see some of the genre’s biggest legends duke it out in a string of overblown, bullet-riddled set pieces. Funnily enough, people weren’t exactly thrilled to see Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, and Victor Ortiz steal the spotlight away from the old guard.

It didn’t help than a pristine copy of The Expendables 3 leaked online ahead of its release, either, which contributed to the film turning out to be the lowest-grossing and worst-reviewed of the trilogy. Next year’s fourth installment will theoretically right many of those wrongs, but supporters on Reddit have managed to find a solitary ray of light in a misguided and woefully ill-judged effort that almost killed the entire IP stone dead.

As ropey as the CGI tends to be, the climactic action sequence that dominates the entire third act of The Expendables 3 comes close to rectifying the many mistakes made throughout, even if the PG-13 setting hampers the impact. It’s impossible not to crack a smile when you see Harrison Ford piloting a helicopter that boasts Arnold Schwarzenegger hanging out the side mowing down henchmen with gleeful abandon, though, especially when the latter bellows “GET TO THE CHOPPA!” before the team makes it to safety.

By and large, The Expendables 3 was an egregious miscalculation, but that awesome showdown almost saved it from mediocrity.