Director: Sylvain White
Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba & Chris Evans
A fun adaptation of the comic book series that whilst lacking some of the depth of the comic, successfully builds some of its action set pieces and features a strong, enjoyable cast.
With most comic book adaptations hitting the big screen being based on superheroes, The Losers comes as long as one of the less frequent adaptations that adapts a comic from a different genre. When The Losers comic was conceived, it was with the intent of created a series that took action cinema values and apply them to a comic book series where budget issues are not an option and stories are only limited by the imaginations of their writers and artists. As a variant on The A-Team, The Losers comes to the big screen as part of the genre that inspired it. With a strong cast, some enjoyable action sequences lifted directly from the comic and good humour throughout, The Losers is a fun action movie though it lacks some of the depth and tension of the series on which it was based.
The Losers, a special forces team led by Clay (Morgan) and consisting of Roque (Elba), Jensen (Evans), Pooch (Columbus Short) and Cougar (Oscar Jaenada), find themselves presumed dead and framed for murder when their decision to ignore orders to save children from a drug cartel marked for destruction by airstrike sees an attempt on their lives result in the death of those they saved. Having identified the man, named Max (Jason Patric), who targeted them by his voice on a radio, the team go into hiding but are approached by a mysterious woman named Aisha (Zoe Saldana) who claims to have the money to finance operations by the team to find Max and clear their names in return for killing Max for Aisha and stopping his attempts to purchase a deadly new weapon. Max however, being a high ranking member of the CIA, has the means to protect himself and make the Losers mission against him very difficult indeed.
Originally planned to be directed by Peter Berg, who wrote the script, scheduling conflicts saw The Losers delayed before being passed on to Sylvain White. Fortunately, despite White’s inexperience as an action director, the action sequences in The Losers are often very enjoyable with many of the action sequences based on the same sequences in the comic book including some, though not all, of the fun angles that the comic’s artist used to convey those sequences. There is added humour in the film that is enjoyable too with the team bantering back and forth enjoyably and some rearranging of the comic’s plotlines (the film is based mostly on the first year of the series) such as making the character of Max more prominent sooner has varied success. With the character of Max it results in a rather enjoyable villain though in regards to the character of Aisha, she is softened in comparison to her comic book counterpart and her new origins are less interesting but these are issues that may have more relevance to the enjoyment of audiences familiar with the source material than those that those who aren’t. There is also a somewhat frustrating open ending to the film that, while there is more stories from the comic that could be adapted, the lack of guarantee of their being a sequel to wrap up plot threads leaves the film feeling incomplete.
The Losers does boast a fun and interesting cast of character actors in most of its roles. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, building on his tough guy persona in films like Watchmen and his star potential from television, makes for enjoyable Clay while Idris Elba as Roque enjoyably portrays the character’s anger issues always bottling away under the surface. Chris Evans gets the most memorable role as the wise cracking Jensen though he also gets enjoyable support, and competition, from Columbus Short as Pooch with the pair getting most of the best lines while Oscar Jaenada is likeable as the quiet Cougar. Zoe Saldana is decent as Aisha but the limitations of her character in the movie to merely badass chick, deprives the role and Saldana of the depth of the comic book character and the character here, like Saldana’s performance, is often too soft. Finally there is Jason Patric in the role of Max and while the character is pretty much a one note villain, Patric brings some humour to the role making the character evil yet enjoyable.
Lacking some of the depth of the comic book series, particularly in regards to the role of Aisha, The Losers still remains a very enjoyable action film with a fun cast, some good humour and action sequences though none as great as their comic book counterpart. A fun action film nevertheless.
Rating: 3/5
