Dolph Lundgren says Expendables 4 had "issues from the beginning"
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The Expendables 4 star Dolph Lundgren has discussed the film's "issues" following its disappointing box office run.
Shortly after its release in September 2023, the movie — styled Expend4bles — became the lowest-grossing entry in the action franchise at both the US box office and global box office.
Speaking to Screen Rant, Lundgren — who plays Gunner Jensen in the films — explained where he thought the fourth instalment went wrong.
"I didn't read the reviews, because I kind of knew what they were gonna say. That project had issues from the beginning, and it usually starts with the script, it didn't really have a good script," he said.
Related: First reactions land for Expendables 4
The actor went on to describe the impact of Sylvester Stallone's original scripts, and why his absence from the writing team on the new sequel affected its quality.
"I'm not playing the lead, so it's hard for me to weigh in on some of those issues, but I know Stallone wasn't involved, like he usually is," he explained.
"He just played a character in it, and when he's in charge, the quality is going to be pretty good, it doesn't drop below a certain level. But he wasn't involved, so I think the problem was with the script, and then the director was replaced, like, a month before shooting.
"So between those two things — it's hard to make a really good movie, and I also think that the originals, the first two especially, it was kind of about the team. It was about a team effort, and some of that got lost, so I was sad to see go that way."
Related: Expendables 4 director opens up about the saga's future after box office fiasco
He concluded: "If you would have had a big star-studded premiere with Megan [Fox] and 50 [Cent] and Stallone and [Jason] Statham, and the rest of them, myself, Andy García, there would have been more eyeballs on it. And I'm sure it would have done better, but that's too bad. I was disappointed."
At the time of writing (January 21), Expend4bles has a score of just 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics branding the film "lacklustre" and "a giant waste of everyone's time and talent".
Expend4bles is available to buy or rent in the US from Prime Video, iTunes and more.
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