The Losers

Introduction

There've been plenty of comic book adapations over the last few years, and The Losers is another one. Taken from the DC Comics stable, The Losers is the work of writer Andy Diggle and artist Jock - both of whom met whilst working on UK sci-fi comic 2000AD. The Losers isn't a sci-fi work or even a superhero, rather an elite band of covert special ops.

The Losers consist of:

Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) - Operational control
Pooch (Columbus Short) - Transport and heavy weapons
Cougar (Óscar Jaenada) - long range eliminations
Jensen (Chris Evans) - Communications & tech
Roque (Idris Elba) - Demolitions & tactics

The Losers are in South America to identify and paint the location of drug dealer Fadhil for a CIA black operation to eliminate him, but the team spot a busload of young children brought in as human shields and attempt to stop the air raid. This is vetoed by a mysterious CIa operative called Max (Jason Patric) who doesn't seem to be bothered about any collateral damage. Unable to let it go, The Losers break into the drug dealers compound, shooting it up big stylee, and not only rescue all 25 children but also kill Fadil on the way out, just making it to safety as the compound is obliterated by the aerial bombing.

Making it to the rendezvous point, the elilte commandoes are told that the extraction chopper is not big enough to airlift them all to safety and therefore the team give up their seats in order to get the children to safety. As the chopper takes off, the team hear Max order the chopper to be shot down, thinking the special forces team are on it and helpless to stop it, the team can only watch as it is blown apart in front of them with no survivors. Finding themselves blamed for the deaths of the children, the team go undercover locally biding their time until they can find a way back home. And then Aisha (Zoe Saldana) finds them. Aisha appears to be a well connected Government operative who offers them a way home and information on Max...

Meanwhile Max is making deals and throwing people from tall buildings, or rather getting his number two Wade Travis (Holt McCallany) to do the actual throwing, in order to secure the purchase of some snukes. Snukes are sonic dematerialisers, a weapon of pure extreme destruction with no pollution after effects - the perfect modern terrorist weapon. Max wants these to sell them to the highest bidders, but only people who will actually use the weapons rather than keep them as deterrents, thus proving to be more than a little unstable.

Can The Losers stop his evil plan? And how does Aisha fit in?

Extras

There's a nice smattering of short extras covering the development, training and production of the film to keep most people happy.

Overall

This film was over shadowed by The A-Team but may recover in the home entertainment market by being released first. It covers the same kind of ground, an elite team blamed for a crime they didn't commit, yadda yadda, but is also different enough in that no one is a certified lunatic pilot and the team can't make tanks from farm machinery.

The Losers is, however, overblown comic book fun on celluloid with larger than life characters, large set pieces and louds of big bangs with sometimes spectacular special effects. It's a lot of fun and the cast all look like they're having a ball, even Idris Elba who has to sulk through most of this film. It's big and brash but never takes itself seriously, as evidenced by the comic relationship between the main villains Max and Wade. I wasn't so convinced by Zoe Saldana initially but upon reflection, her character and backstory fit quite neatly, even if she doesn't quite seem to have the build to do some of the things she does - to be fair, at least one of the extras has just about everyone singing her praises for her achievements on the film.

Very enjoyable ride, leave your brain at the door...