Review - The Losers (2010)

“That's right bitches; I got a crossbow!”

Director: Sylvian White
Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Jason Patric
Screenplay: Peter Berg, James Vanderbilt

Plot: After being betrayed and left for dead, members of a CIA black ops team join forces with a girl out for revenge in a desperate bid to gain their lives back and make the mysterious Max pay for his crimes.

The trailer got me pretty excited and from what I read of the comic books I like the story. But having watched the movie I can’t help but be a little disappointed. It’s not that it’s bad it’s just that the elements seemed to be there but not a lot was made of it. Still there are some positives and it won’t be a complete waste of time for people.

Acting wise it’s all pretty standard with only a few notable exceptions. Chris Evan no stranger to comic book movies plays Jensen, who is basically the films comic relief. Out of the motley group that is The Losers he is the bright spot and was the only character that stood out for me. It was nice to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the movie after his terrific turn as The Comedian from Watchmen but there was something lacking from him as Clay in this movie. Zoe Saldana as Aisha also proves a problem for me. Not that she’s a bad actress but that I didn’t buy that she was this lean mean mercenary. But I can’t move on from the acting without mentioning Jason Patric who plays the villain Max. He chews every scene he is in and it’s a pleasure to watch.

Action wise this movie hopes to be a sugar rush. Just cram the movie full of action and enjoy the ride, however here is where the movie really starts to fall apart at least in my opinion. The action scenes that I saw didn’t make me give a damn. I was hoping to get to an acting scene that had Jensen or Max and to me that’s quite a failing of the director. The story itself is pretty decent, but there doesn’t seem to be much behind it all. Mind you one thing I’ll give the movie at least I could see the action occurring.

Story wise it’s all very basic but it gets the job done. We have a classic team set up for a fall after they try and do the right thing. It seems to follow the comics relatively closely and there is a set up sequels. I think the movie could have done with some more character development. Get us to care about the characters more and we’ll give a damn about the action situations they get put in. It’s pretty simple.

I’ll probably get this movie on DVD as even though it seems I’ve given it a fairly negative review I did leave the movie happy. It does things okay but I think the most annoying thing for me is that there was potential here and it wasn’t used to the fullest. If you’re after an action movie that doesn’t ask for much and one that you’ll forget after a while you could do no worse than The Losers.