The Losers
A Winning Cast, but the Movie...?
2010-04-23
By Sergio Mims
CAST: Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Zoe Saldana
Idris Elba
Columbus Short
Chris Evans
Oscar Jaenada
Jason Patric
WRITTEN BY: Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt
DIRECTED BY: Sylvain White
** TWO STARS
If anything else at least one can admire film director Sylvain White for refusing to be trapped in “the box” that so many other black film directors allow themselves to be trapped in. That is, making either making Tyler Perry rip-offs, or “Lawd woe is me. What did I do to be so black or blue?” films which equate blackness with misery.
His new release, The Losers, is yet another film to be based on a popular comic book, which has been a trend since geeks who were tormented in high school now make the decisions in Hollywood. However unlike the Hughes Brothers, who have successfully broken out of “the box” with From Hell and The Book
of Eli, White stumbles with this effort. Though it’s vivid and colorful visual eye candy, The Losers makes no claims on originality, but instead recycles bits and pieces, odd and ends, from many other far better movies.
The plot in a nutshell: a rouge team of CIA “black ops” professionals (Morgan, Elba, Evans, Short, Jaenada) are set up during an secret mission for elimination by an evil villain, Max (Patric). They survive and go underground passing themselves off as dead until they finally get the opportunity to exact their revenge. That opportunity soon comes in the form of a mysterious sexy babe (Saldana) with her own secrets and hidden agendas who knows how to get to Max.
Despite ingredients that would make a solidly entertaining film, the major problem is that White, unlike Matthew Vaughn in the recent movie Kick Ass, can’t seem find a consistent tone for the film.
Though it moves with the speed of a freight train out of control,. the rhythm of the film is all over the place, with huge leaps in logic and motivations. It’s serious one moment, then goofy and unrealistic the next. It’s ad-style editing is frantic and busy with hardly any one shot lasting more than 30 seconds, yet there’s nothing of real substance in the film. It’s a two-hour Tootsie Pop, but with a hollow center.
And though it’s violent, because of its compromised PG-13 rating, one never feels the weight or impact of the violence. It’s too carefree and lighthearted. In fact, in one scene when a helicopter full of people is blown up, no dead bodies or body parts are seen in the burning wreckage.
Furthermore, the relationships among the main characters, most dimensional and superficial, are confusing and muddled at best. They can’t stand each other one second, then they’re best friends the next without context or motivation. Worse is the “Where did that come from..” romance between Saldana and the bleary eyed Morgan with a big sexless sex scene to boot. Add to that some strained attempts at humor and the result is a subplot that falls completely flat.
Jason Patric, as the villainous mastermind, tries very hard to create a weird, eccentric, scene stealing villain, but he tries too hard and doesn’t get the exact right nuances to pull off the role. And once again Idris Elba is wasted again in a film that promises much at first, only to squander again his impressive screen presence and charisma. Saldana, fortunately comes off the best despite being in a thankless role, but who nevertheless captures the screen with her full, magnificent, sexy glory no doubt relived she’s not this time relegated to the background as she was in Star Trek or turned into a smurf.
Though The Losers shows brief flashes of genuine talent from White and proves he deserves credit for going against the grain, the films wastes its potential to be just another disposable, big, loud movie that will be erased from memory by the time filmgoers have tossed away the popcorn box.
