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THE AVENGERS Didn't Have Enough "Machismo" For THE EXPENDABLES' Dolph Lundgren

While the actor enjoyed Marvel's The Avengers, he did think that there was a key ingredient missing from both that and other similar special effects laden movies. Real fights, real explosions and read machismo! Do you agree? Hit the jump to read his comments in full!

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By Josh Wilding - 3/7/2013
Talking to Hero Complex, Dolph Lundgren (who made a name for himself as 'Ivan Drago' in 1985's Rocky IV) has shared his thoughts on the divide between old school action fare and special effect laden blockbusters. The actor is now best known for taking on roles in the former genre with the likes of The Expendables, The Expendables 2 and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning.


"There will always be an exploration of new technology in things like "The Avengers" — that was a great movie, by the way — but I think certainly for part of the audience, if you fire a thousand bullets and there’s not a drop of blood, there’s something wrong with that. Part of the audience wants to see real explosions and real fights and that kind of real machismo."


Do you agree? Lundgren clearly isn't trying to start anything here - he even says how much he enjoyed The Avengers! - but do you think the actor has a point? After all, the problem with these PG-13 movies is that most of them have a real lack of actual danger due to the fact that they aren't allowed to show anything too gory. Did Marvel's superhero ensemble suffer because we didn't see the streets lined with bodies? Did it need more machismo? Sound off with your thoughts below!

Source: Hero Complex
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RABB1T - 3/7/2013, 2:07 PM
I see what he's saying, but The Avengers doesn't need to play like a traditional action film. We need the unbelievability in these things. The Avengers needs heavy special effects -- having everything be practical would eliminate the fantasy.
PantherX - 3/7/2013, 2:09 PM
Couldn't agree more, those Chitariu really need to invest in some contact lenses. Didn't even manage to hit one of those poor suckers.
SuperDude001 - 3/7/2013, 2:09 PM
Not really a point that harms the film in general, but it is reasonable.
I mean he's not complaining, admits the film is good, just like for an audience that are fans of his kind of films I would imagine some brutality and blood in the Avengers would've improved it for them. Hell the Avengers wasn't perfect, while it was awesome many things could've improved it for me. tbh I'm just surprised Lundgren liked the Avengers lol.
RABB1T - 3/7/2013, 2:09 PM
I completely missed the gore Hahaha! The Avengers isn't meant to be gory- you can have blood, as it did, but we aren't looking for "Punisher Warzone" Face exploding gore! Hahahaha.
RidiculousFanBoyDemands - 3/7/2013, 2:17 PM
I wouldn't mind a few more practical effects in big budget movies these days.
RidiculousFanBoyDemands - 3/7/2013, 2:20 PM
Having said that, you don't have to show blood for a film to be violent. Take this for example. This was brutally violent scene, but cut away right at the moment of impact, and left it up to the viewer to imagine what happened. I thought the Avengers was fine sans the blood, although like I said a few more practical effects wouldn't be so bad in the next one.
jessepostal - 3/7/2013, 2:20 PM
Dolph is fn awesome
LFANCH - 3/7/2013, 2:20 PM
@PantherX the only characters that didn't get shot in that battle were hawkeye and widow.

Anyways, I don't really see why blood makes fights more realistic. Most of the time when you try to amp up the gore factor it just makes things look less realistic.
pro346 - 3/7/2013, 2:20 PM
Yeah I agree with him ...not a big fan of CGI explosions etc and that's why I like the dark knight trilogy less CGI more practical.
RorMachine - 3/7/2013, 2:20 PM
Have to agree partially - the movie could have used a bit more grit. Not necessarily blood n guts and stuff, but when the villains go down easier than Gusto after a case of whiskey, it lessens the drama. There never seemed to be any real threat to the city..they just ran around missing with their lasers, and even when they hit they did no damage ("ready for another bout..even though your guts should be all over my cape right now!")

That being said, the Expendables movies [frick]ing suck anyway!:)
sKeemAn - 3/7/2013, 2:21 PM
He's right but Avengers is fantasy fights, and large explosions
Bocephus247 - 3/7/2013, 2:21 PM
Finally! I've been wondering what Dolph thought of the Avengers for MONTHS!!!
TheGambitFreakIsBatmanOfCBM - 3/7/2013, 2:21 PM
I 100% agree with him. However, Avengers and CBMs in general are aspired towards kids and teens. Which is cool. And just FYI, There was WAY too much blood coming out of the bodies getting shot up in Expendables. WAY too much. Anyways, I think it would've been a nice addition to have put this in Avengers.... Gives you a sense that Thor has his weaknesses...
jessepostal - 3/7/2013, 2:22 PM
@ridic, that's called the Hitchcock :)
ToTheManInTheColdSweat - 3/7/2013, 2:22 PM
ehmagerd, fack him, he dissed my favrite cbm, he's a hasbeen, xpendibles suxxx

:P
RidiculousFanBoyDemands - 3/7/2013, 2:22 PM
Gotta give Dolph credit though, dude looks amazing at 55, and he's incredibly Brilliant. Most people don't know he was offered a Fullbright scholarship to freaking MIT.
sephiroth211 - 3/7/2013, 2:23 PM
Holy hell, I didn't know these two dated at one time.



Lord above, thank you for not allowing those two to produce an offspring.
pro346 - 3/7/2013, 2:28 PM
Excessive CGI blood don't make a great action movie either....which is what expendables 2 had.
poop23 - 3/7/2013, 2:29 PM
This is how wolverine should be. For someone whose main ability is cutting people to pieces, there just should be a bit more blood
RPD - 3/7/2013, 2:29 PM
Expendables 2 sucked...
batman1216 - 3/7/2013, 2:30 PM
I agree with him. I too enjoyed the Avengers, but at this stage in my life I am more drawn to dark and gritty character driven movies and action movies with practical fx and an edge. 10 years ago Avengers would have been my favorite movie ever, but these days i am less enthused with safe family friendly movies. Avengers was great at what it was though
beyond2099 - 3/7/2013, 2:35 PM
dolph should play Drax in GOTG
ATrueHero1987 - 3/7/2013, 2:37 PM
I agree, more practical effect would be good. Also, not every action scene needs blood everywhere.
TrueRedBlue - 3/7/2013, 2:39 PM
WTF. He's starring in an Expendables movie and he's trying to talk about good filmmaking? Really?
unknownfacts - 3/7/2013, 2:40 PM
I can see where he's coming from since ther are afew scenes that makes you say that's probably not how that should have happened but it's a family friendly movie so it should show too much blood or the true out come of certain actions.
Shamo - 3/7/2013, 2:40 PM
i'd of definitely preferred it. theres blood in the comics so why leave it out in the movie? but it didn't take me out the film or anything so its its meaningless in the grand scheme of thinks.
unknownfacts - 3/7/2013, 2:42 PM
meant shouldn't show
PantherX - 3/7/2013, 2:42 PM
@LFANCH Yet not one civilian. Funny that.
Nemeres - 3/7/2013, 2:47 PM
What Avengers needed was some stakes, or higher ones. You knew that no one important was gonna die, that the generic aliens were gonna be defeated no matter what, etc. It was nice eye candy and all, but it was a little hollow.
DanteSparda - 3/7/2013, 2:51 PM
Yeah, you said that because you fücking killed Apolo you blood thirsty russian.
MrYurMomm - 3/7/2013, 2:52 PM


Maybe an Avengers movie like this would solve his "machismo" problem...
Giznad - 3/7/2013, 2:53 PM
there was blood on Loki's staff when he killed Coulson. That's good enough for me. Subtle.
VIRILEMAN - 3/7/2013, 2:54 PM
@PantherX

Cap got shot, Iron man got shot, even the HULK got shot like 100 times. We even saw him bleed. Have you even seen the Avengers?
DioFoRio - 3/7/2013, 2:55 PM
expendables 2 sucked. Really dug part one. Ridic!!! You're back man!

Practicle effects need to be used more often in conjunction with cgi. I think all these action stars need to stop feeling threatened by the CBM explosion and focus on making a good gritty smaller scale action flick. I for one would love to see some old school shit done well! Bring back the BOZ!
NoJobBOB - 3/7/2013, 2:55 PM


He was just hoping he would've gotten to cameo as the Punisher so he could [frick] shit up. =]
DioFoRio - 3/7/2013, 2:56 PM
I think he forgets it's a family friendly flick. Oh and Coulson taking a rod through his chest
NoJobBOB - 3/7/2013, 2:56 PM
@ Nomis

Wow...8 replies appeared just as I posted mine.

You beat me too it :[
PantherX - 3/7/2013, 3:11 PM
Okay, apparently I'm not typing in English because I'm not sure how I can make this more clear. When I say civilian, I refer to any random New Yorker caught in the chaos. Not the superheroes.

Sigh.
IIIAdamantiumIII - 3/7/2013, 3:12 PM
Dolphy is stuck in the past his current films have been complete garbage
Chloefornication - 3/7/2013, 3:18 PM
A film showing a entire city being destroyed, no one dying and everybody is happy in the end. Yeah, I agree with Dolph. That sucked.
NoJobBOB - 3/7/2013, 3:34 PM
At least Transformers showed people getting obliterated but Avengers was a family movie. It was a general movie for anyone everywhere and it was amazing. It would've been cool to see more blood and all but in the end, it wasn't really needed.
TheGambitFreakIsBatmanOfCBM - 3/7/2013, 3:39 PM
@Chloefornication: Nope. At the end of Avengers, when Alan Silvestri's "Promise" is playing in the background as it shows the heroes gathering at the park for their disassemble and as the camera pans across the tv's and such, you can see people crying and in tears and lighting candles at the grave sites of loved ones. Civilians died.
DarkKnight23 - 3/7/2013, 3:42 PM
DDDRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Oxbow - 3/7/2013, 3:45 PM
Glad he enjoyed it...I enjoyed his Ivan Drago!

"I must break you."

Still, not everything needs to be the same... CBMs like Avengers create a world that most all audiences can get into, and that's partly why they overtook the kind of action flicks that this actor is known for. Given all that then, this response is pretty big of him!
SigmaCenturion - 3/7/2013, 3:49 PM
Yeah the next avengers movie should try to have more gravity to its fight scenes. Everything looked like it was on wires. Fix that element and add more grittiness not talking dark but intense battle scenes. Get stuff like what they have in Spartacus minus all of the nudity and gore.
third3ye - 3/7/2013, 3:50 PM
'Real Action' < Bad Acting + Pisspoor Writing

Btw I think the 'part of the audience' he's referring to must live in a place with no movie theaters because they certainly hurt the Avengers' $1.5b gross revenue!
Tony93 - 3/7/2013, 3:56 PM
@thegambitfreak
where is that gif from? I dont remember it
BruceWillis - 3/7/2013, 4:01 PM
I went through more shit and injuries in Die Hard just protecting a [frick]ing building and yet these Avengers protect a city and not one is hurt? I walked through glasss on my bare feet, how the [frick] did that Hawkeye kid not getting cut going through a glass window? Lame.
wavehunter - 3/7/2013, 4:06 PM
I always thought that in his prime he would have beed great as Colossus.
imadick - 3/7/2013, 4:09 PM
How his career's going has nothing to do with the validity of his point.

His genius level IQ and Fulbright Scholarship to MIT, too, have nothing to do with the validity of his point.


His point is valid, because it is a valid point. End of [frick]ing story.
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