5. He Can Do Emotion
It goes without saying that both Expendables films thus far have absolutely suffered jarring shifts in tone; during the first, it occurred as Mickey Rourke delivered a meaningful, surprisingly well-acted monologue about a mission in his past gone awry. So well-acted and sombre was it that it really detracted from the fun temporarily, and didn't really feel like it had any place in what we were watching. Similarly, in EX2, Simon West gives us plenty of downtime in which the characters - particularly Liam Hemsworth's tortured young soldier - exchange graphic war stories, again diluting what is first and foremost meant to be a goofy homage to 80s action and a celebration of what is essentially irresponsible, consequence-free violence. If the screenplay again saddles the crew with an inconsistent tone, John Woo might have a better shot at pulling it off, if his CV is anything to go by. Bullet in the Head was a fiercely emotional film against expectations, and similarly, A Better Tomorrow and The Killer are completely rooted in well-drawn characters, much moreso than one would anticipate. Woo's knack for combining gratuitous violence easily alongside more tender, thoughtful moments makes it clear to us that he'll have a much easier time weathering a script that might try and derail the tone.