The Expendables 2 Analysis

The Expendables 2 Opening Scene Analysis

The very first shot we see is a medium shot of what looks like a hostage being slapped which then quickly cuts to an establishing shot of what looks like a broken town or a base of some sort, we soon see a long shot of multiple military vehicles driving down a hill to the location - due to the expectations of the film from the previous film, the audience assume that this is a mission that 'the expendables' are going on, to maybe save the hostage that we see in the first clip. Throughout the opening sequence, we are not given much information about the characters in the military vehicles, due to the fact the director will assume the audience have seen the first installment of The Expendables and so any large character traits will of been shown throughout the first film. However if a member of the audience has not seen the first film, they will have a rough idea of who the characters are - by using some of the most famous action movie actors and due to the amount of action movie clichés we see, the audience can clearly see that these characters are either mercenaries or part of a military force. The low angle shots that are used on the mercenaries shows that they are powerful and very important in the film. 

The glorious death of hundreds of terrorists being gunned down by heavy machinery just adds to the excitement and action clichés in the opening scene of the film. As the audience, we are quite literally thrown straight into the action, there is little build up as after only one minute there is a shoot out in the broken location. The Mise En Scene is what you would expect from an action film like The Expendables - it has a lot of explosions, fast vehicles, guns, death, soldiers, mercenaries, military related activity, it has it all. Like a lot of action films, they are fairly unrealistic, in the way that about eight mercenaries can take out hundreds of soldiers without really any struggle. This however does give the audience the impression that these characters are very well trained and professionals at what they do. The diegetic sounds take up most of the sounds used in the sequence, as we mainly hear the engines of the vehicles, gun shots and explosions for the most part - and maybe one of the mercenaries shouting at something, the non diegetic sounds like the background music play only a minor part in the scene as it is fairly quiet due to the loud diegetic sounds being used.