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Film Review – The Losers

By | April 25th, 2010
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The second comic book film of April is upon us: The Losers. An adaptation of Andy Diggle and Jock’s Vertigo series, the Losers is about an ex-black ops team who, after uncovering a secret during one of their missions, are killed. The only problem is that it doesn’t take, and the Losers return to America with anger in their hearts and one plan – to take revenge on Max, the mysterious man that set them up for their fall. Teamed with the femme fatale to end femme fatales, the Losers embark on quest to find out why Max tried to kill them and get their well deserved payback.

As short as the Losers was in comic book form, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that this book is the whole reason that I’m a fan of Andy Diggle and Jock. The Losers is a great read, and one of the few Vertigo titles that I own in it’s entirety. I’m also fairly harsh on comic book adaptations that attempt to recreate a set story (as you may or may not have read when I tore down Kick-Ass). I’m also the only person at MC who has read the Losers in it’s entirety, and I’m fairly certain I was the only person overly excited to see the film.

So, given those facts as well as my knowledge that the Losers really was going to cover the first six issues of the story, what was my reaction? Find out by clicking after the jump, and keep in mind spoilers for both the comic and the movie will be discussed.

Well, as far as a comic book adaptation goes, it’s pretty poor. I’m a huge stickler when it comes to things like this, and the Losers just about failed on all accounts. The first and most obvious thing the film did wrong is that it played the story off as a comedy, and while there certainly were comedic aspects of the book at times, the book is generally a serious action/thriller story. On top of that you have constant changes, such as the overall evil scheme of Max as well as the character of Max. In fact, Max is one of the things I really disliked about the film, because we took a character that was dark, complex, mysterious, and devilish and morphed him into a character who was goofy and should have been tying women to rail road tracks (who, for whatever reason, has an unexplained grotesque hand). A lot of the important aspects of the book are played down as well, such as the role of Goliath as well as the CIA. As much as Max is a member of the CIA, in the film he really just acts as a rogue terrorist.

So right off the bat, if we are holding the book up to the movie, we’re looking at a watered down version of the story featuring characters with the same outfits and names.

However, I didn’t hate the movie. I am a stickler for adaptations being appropriate adaptations (which causes me to hate a lot of things), but I also don’t feel like when I was going into the film that the movie was portraying itself as a faithful adaptation. In fact, anyone who had read the first six issues and then seen the trailer could’ve probably figured that one out. The movie is a humorous heist/action film that puts on a sarcastic tone and kicks a decent amount of ass. On top of that, as unfaithful as it is it does manage to successfully bring in certain scenes from the comic that you wouldn’t be expecting. For example, and this is a MAJOR spoiler here, it does in fact have the plan explosion from issue six in the film as the villain rides a motorcycle, is shot by Cougar, and flies into the planes engine, causing it to blow up and the traitorous Roque to die within. That was not something I actually expected to see. It also kept in a lot of the major elements that motivated the characters in the comic, such as the death of the children in the helicopter and the twist that Clay killed Aisha’s father.

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The performances by the main cast is also pretty entertaining (aside from Max and Aisha, which I’ll get to later). Every actor plays a much more light hearted version of their darker comic book counterparts, apt to tell sly jokes and make catty and witty remarks to one another. In fact, the chemistry between the actors is pretty undeniable. Chris Evans (aka Captain America) is easily the best character in the film, and the closest to the sarcastic Jensen of the comic, but the role is obviously no great stretch to him. Never the less, he fits it perfectly and is one of the most entertaining parts of the film. Jeffery Dean Morgan is the other obvious stand out, although he plays a much more lighthearted Clay than the comic book counter part as well. I also felt like Idris Elba played a great Roque, since when talking with people who I saw the movie with, everyone pretty much agreed that his betrayal came out of nowhere. When it happened in the comic book, it happened right off the bat, so we had no real time to get used to the character to be overly shocked by his betrayal. The fact that me, as someone who knew what was coming, could see the signs of his betrayal coming but the movie fans that I saw this film with could not, was something to me that I thought was pulled off incredibly well by the film. Columbus Short and Oscar Jaenada also rounded up the performances with a full cast of likable anti-heroes, even if they were – as I’ve said – much more light hearted.

There are still things I gripe with. I already mentioned my dislike of Jason Patric as Max, which I felt was the worst change from the original story, but I also did not like Zoe Seldana as Aisha. In the comic. Aisha is this incredibly femme fatale who doesn’t speak much, shoots first and asks questions later, and is clear in her motivation from the beginning. In the film, she acts as their bank roll as well as a deadly character, but a much softer character at heart who is prone to tears when it is revealed that Clay killed her father. The comic’s Aisha is much more believable in the story than Zoe, as Zoe is the “Hollywoodized” eye candy version of Aisha, which is pretty lame. I also feel like there are a lot of elements of the story that didn’t work as well in the presentation of the film as they do in the comic. The movie takes scenes from the book and places them out of order, such as their origin being at the beginning of the film rather than being a mystery. It was so odd to me that they kept the opening scene of the comic in the movie, just in a different place, when really – the movie should have opened with that. The origin story should have been revealed later on when Clay is drunk with Aisha and gets sentimental (since Mogan’s Clay is definitely a much “cuddlier” version as well). Also, having the viewer see Max right off the bat when one of the defining moments of the final scene is Clay telling Max that he now knows what he looks like. It’s just poor storytelling.

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one thing all on it’s very own – the ending of this movie is INCREDIBLY anti-climactic. Obviously the film sets itself up for a sequel and the future hunting of Max, but that type of ending works in the comic because you get the next issue in a month. In this, we’re going to wait who knows how long for a sequel that isn’t even greenlit in any way, shape, or form. The audience is literally left hanging with no real Max confrontation and a dumb scene in the bus. Pooch gets to see his son being born, and we get to see Jensen finally go to a soccer game, and that’s all well and good (and pretty hilariously funny, music cues and all), but it’s horribly anti-climactic.

Ultimately, the Losers is a bad film and a bad comic book adaptation, but that doesn’t stop it from being an incredibly fun film and a highly entertaining one. I laughed a lot, enjoyed the over the top antics, and was happy that despite a lot of the comic not being there, most of the big things from the first six issues were (and even some little things, like Jensen hitting on Aisha). The Losers is not an Oscar winning film, but it is one of the few comic book adaptations that I’ve seen where the changes didn’t hurt too much and I found more to like than dislike. While I would’ve given anything to get a more villainous Max and a different Aisha, the rest of the cast (i.e. the main Losers) made up for it, and any film that features Chris Evans knocking out a guy with a briefcase to the soundtrack of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” will get a thumbs up from yours truly.

As long as you don’t take the film seriously and acknowledge the fact that the Losers is more of it’s own entity as a heist/action comedy than an action/thriller/conspiracy story, it’s quite enjoyable. It’s definitely a fun movie to see in theaters, and would’ve done fairly well as a summer film in my opinion. Grab a bag of popcorn, a couple of friends, and spend a night in the movie theater. You’ll have a good enough time.


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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