The Chuck Norris Conundrum

I finally got to see The Expendables 2 last Sunday.  It was almost a perfect movie but for all of its strengths it had one fundamental flaw:  Not Enough Norris.  Chuck stole every scene he was in but there weren't enough of them.  I can understand Stallone's trepidation about giving Chuck too many scenes.  The point of the movie was to give all of the great action stars a moment to shine.  This only possible if Chuck is not in the scene.  Even when standing in the background he steals all of the attention.

The movie did make the most effective use of Chuck it could while still allowing the other action stars to appear to be be remotely close to Chuck's level of Ultimate BadAssery.   His presence works to increase the drama for all of the other actors in the film because in comparison to him there seems little chance of other people achieving any level of success because he already has achieved all of the success that is even theoretically possible in the movie.

The movie succeeded in compensating for Chuck's ONLY flaw as an actor.  In any good film there has to be a point at which it seems like all of the chips are down and the hero might not succeed.  In one of his only limitations as a human being Chuck Norris is not capable of portraying this scenario.  It is impossible for anyone watching Chuck Norris to suspend disbelief enough to believe that there is even an infinitesimal possibility that he might not succeed utterly in his endeavor.  It is utterly impossible to pretend there is any chance in hell Chuck won't dominate every other living thing on the planet.  Expendables was able to work Chuck's awesomeness into the story by acknowledging Chuck's impossibility of failure. 

Sadly to keep the film below an NC-17 rating Chuck Norris' most badass scene had to take place off-screen.  I understand this because reminding everyone of what Chuck Norris is capable of would most certainly cause a universal panic.

In closing I would recommend everyone see this movie but keep your expectations reasonable.  As I stated above Chuck Norris couldn't be in large portions of the movie because of the reasons stated.  His mere presence elevates this film to the top of the best movies ever made but it makes it obvious how much better it could've been if the whole movie focused solely on Chuck.