There are various ways you can approach the character poster stage of marketing a movie. You could opt for the standard “This will be a part of the main poster” idea like **Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the O-faces preferred by Team **Nymphomaniac or this attempt by the **Expendables 3 **crew, which comes off as “Weirdest family ever hits the department store photo studio.”
Looking for maximum exposure (to go with the maximum explosions), the Expendables crew have been spread across the winds of the ‘net, so you can, er, 'thank' Collider for Harrison Ford, Terry Crews, Jet Li and Glen Powell, JoBlo for Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgen, Kellan Lutz and Jason Statham, IGN for Antonio Banderas, Victor Ortiz, Sly Stallone and Mel Gibson and Coming Soon for Kelsey Grammer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronda Rousey and Wesley Snipes.
Credit where it's due: we’re certainly getting a chuckle out of some of these, with Grammer looking like the uncle of the group setting out on a fly-fishing expedition, Banderas apparently auditioning for The Life Aquatic 2: Knit Cap Danger, Lutz offering his best Freemans Catalogue pose, Statham hearing a funny joke in a pub and Terry Crews clearly having a blast (literally, if he’s not careful with that gun). And don’t get us started on Ford’s “Oh hi! I didn’t see you there, I was just doing some step up exercises” attitude.
This third outing for the gang finds Stallone’s Barney Ross and the rest coming up against the improbably named Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson) who co-founded the Expendables before turning nasty, becoming an arms dealer and dying at the hands (or bullets, bombs, whatever) of Barney himself. Or so he thought… Now Stonebanks has one mission: to destroy his old comrades.
Facing a powerful threat, Barney recruits some new blood on to the team, keying up a clash between old-school style and high-tech fresh expertise. With Patrick Hughes calling the shots on this one, **The Expendables 3 **will swagger on screens on August 15.