Yesterday no less an authority than President Camacho himself, Terry freakin’ Crews, promised us that a new trailer for The Expendables 2 would be arriving online today to put a blood-and-skull-splattered boot in our collective ass. Sure enough as I sit here with The Dirty Dozen, the original (and still best) of the all-star superteam action-adventures, playing in the background I sit here writing this: Today Crews’ loud and awful snarly promise was fulfilled.

You can watch the mighty new trailer here below.

I’m a huge fan of the first Expendables, but having re-watched it on Blu-ray recently it’s clear that the movie has serious problems when it comes to the narrative structure and the staging of the action sequences. Don’t get me wrong, Sylvester Stallone did a fine job directing the movie overall, especially when you take into account that he was also writing and starring in the movie at the same time (and taking some near-paralyzing injuries in the process). But when the aging but still active action hero announced that a new director would take the helm of The Expendables 2 while he stuck to acting duties I took a great amount of relief in that news.

Judging by the insane amount of explosive action on display it looks that director Simon West, who previously called the shots on high-volume adrenaline buffets such as Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, has delivered his masterpiece. Of course sequels tend to be much better than their predecessors and the original Expendables was a costly gamble that thankfully paid off with blockbuster grosses in the U.S. and around the world, so an inevitable sequel would have to amp up the action quotient. Looks like The Expendables 2 will be giving the superheroes on the Marvel and D.C. universes a run for their money this summer.

Returning with Stallone are Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, and the aforementioned Mr. Crews. Joining the team this time around are Liam Hemsworth (in a role once rumored for Taylor Lautner – thank God that didn’t happen) and Nan Yu. Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger also return from the original, this time with expanded roles that see them actually getting in on the action. Chuck Norris plays a vague role in all of this. Jean-Claude Van Damme is the villain and gets to throw down with Stallone at one point. Lots of stuff blows up real good. There are trucks, tanks, planes, boats, and many more vehicles used for the delivery of pure mayhem to the hungry masses. Willis and Schwarzenegger even to fire guns while driving one of those tiny electric cars.

The Expendables 2 opens on August 17, 2012.

Trailer

[Source: IGN]