“The Expendables 2”

★★ 1/2 (out of four)

“The Expendables 2” seemed inevitable, and the idea of a franchise was most welcome — especially after it was promised that the sequel would amp up the action and camaraderie with the addition of full supporting roles for genre icons Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme (the first two appeared in the first film in cameo roles). The idea of these guys uniting for a giant orgy of ass kicking and bubblegum chewing was enough to make any action fan giddy with excitement, and it seemed like the kind of thing that couldn’t possibly go wrong: assemble the players, give them lots of guns, make a lot of stuff go boom — voila, instant awesomeness!

“The Bourne Legacy”

★★ 1/2

This spin-off (skillfully directed by veteran screenwriter and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tony Gilroy, of “Michael Clayton” fame) uses the Jason Bourne saga as a backdrop to tell the story of Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), who, like Bourne, was part of a government research program aimed at creating physically and intellectually superior super-spies. Unlike Bourne, Cross remembers who he is and what he’s done, and becomes the target of government assassins once the Bourne situation goes public.

“The Dark Knight Rises”

★★★★

“The Dark Knight Rises” (which clearly should have been titled “Gotham Rises,” I’m just sayin’) picks up exactly eight years after the events of the last film. The city of Gotham is marking the anniversary of the death of former district attorney Harvey Dent, who, according to the official story, was betrayed and murdered by Batman before the masked vigilante went underground as a fugitive. The weight of this lie has done a number on Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), who has vanished from the public eye and lives out his lonely days as a shut-in.