Film Review: The Losers
The Losers is a DC Vertigo comic that resurrected a premise and a name from an old, defunct DC comic of the same name. The new books updated the premise, the context and the characters for the adult-oriented Vertigo imprint. The film introduces us to a band of soldiers framed by a shady CIA-affiliated man named Max. Outlaws in exile, they plot their return to the US and the exposure of Max as the real villain of the piece. Zoe Saldana’s femme fatale, Aisha, emerges from nowhere to offer them the chance to do just that.
The film is very well cast, including performances from cult heroes like The Wire’s Idris Elba and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Also, showing convincing comedic chops before he picks up Captain America’s shield is Chris Evans. The action plays out in a sequence of set-pieces, some of which are fairly impressive, all of which are great fun. Everything gallops along at a wicked pace, with brief respite here and there for a quick couple of jokes and a brief bit of exposition before we’re off again.
The plot is little more than a vague framework to hang these action sequences on, but it doesn’t really matter. Elba is great as the moody and antagonistic Roque, Evans is unexpectedly genuinely funny as comms expert Jensen and Dean Morgan holds the whole thing together as straight-man leader Clay.
While there is nothing here that will bother the pages of Cahiers du Cinema, and none of the dialogue is even particularly quotable, the film is an energetic romp which is enjoyable from the first frame to the last .
