Genre Essay: The Expendables

The movie trailer that I've chosen is ' The Expendables' (2010) this film is a action and adventure film but is mainly a big action blockbuster film directed by Sylvester Stallone. How we can define that this is a action and adventure film is to look at the aspects this includes all the things that happen on screen and off from it's stars to its editing. This film is a typical action blockbuster and I'll prove that it fits into this genre by picking apart factors of this advert and then analysing them.

This movie is most recognisable for it's stars and this trailer highlights this. From the get go we are shown these iconic action hero's from the 70's and 80's coming back together for another action flick, but not only old action stars appear within this film but also modern action stars feature in this too. This already tells us that this is an action film as the regular typecast actors feature within this film, as well as the director himself, Sylvester Stallone who's always been in the action genre for his acting and directing career. Also throughout the trailer we get shown the typical action packed set up for the mis-en-scene that being the big and loud explosions, the props being military weapons such as all types of guns and knifes. Also within the trailer it features an 'epic' voice over describing our hero's as our last hope at getting rid of the terrorist threat that threatens the world today, also the usage of a threat against the 'good guys' of the world is also a generic storyline used in most big blockbuster action films. Another signifier that this is a blockbuster is the audio that is played through the trailer is big, loud and dramatic, this is to establish that all the action within the film is these things as well and is very typical of these types of action films to use this type of music. The setting shown in this trailer is a very modern outlook at what the modern battlefield looks like during it's action scenes throughout this trailer. Each blockbuster action film shows what the current battlefield looks like during their time in society. This is a typical move for action films as it shows the public eyes what it actually looks like in the battlefield, again proving that this film must fit the action genre as it follows this technique. The shot types used in this film are quite generic to any film; close ups on our heros, mid or long shots for the villains and wide shots to fully capture the explosions, even though with this generic types of shots used within this film we can still tie this with the action genre as these also follow these generic shot types and as said earlier that this film is near enough apart of the said genre.
Within this trailer we can see that the editing is fast paced and shows a lot of scenes in a short amount of time when showing the action scenes, to show more of the action and get a broader view of the big action scenes and see them in different views and the fast paced is used to give a feeling of adrenaline and pure action from this as if it was slow it wouldn't have as much of an effect. This technique is used in all types of films that contain any action in them, this shows that this film perfectly fits for the big action crazed blockbuster genre. The plot of this film shown by the trailer is a generic and typical action flick plot. The hero's group together against what seems like an impossible foe who are threatening the world and it looks like a suicide mission for our hero's, this type of plot always fits the description of the blockbuster action film and why it never changes is because the audience who enjoy these types of films are the ones who enjoy their expectations being met and knowing that our hero's will claim victory and save the day.  This trailer also leaves questions for the audience to think and wonder about such as do the hero's beat the terrorists? Do they survive? What happens if they didn't? These are left in the minds of the audience and then want to go and watch it to get these questions answered and these are typically the questions what action films leave for the audience to make them want to go and watch the film, again showing that this film fits straight into the action genre and shows that this trailer and film are apart of this genre.