Aptly titled The Losers, this comic book adaptation should have probably just stayed in print. A solid, witty performance from Chris Evans can't save this turd from sinking to the bottom of the bowl.
The Losers follows a group of Special Forces soldiers who are set up by an unknown man named Max (Jason Patric, who chews scenery in a very, very bad way). They fake their own deaths and go into hiding in Bolivia. Then, Aisha (Zoe Saldana) offers to smuggle these Losers back into the U.S. in exchange that they hunt down and kill Max. Now, for those who haven't seen the movie, some spoilers are coming up so if you plan on retaining the element of surprise you should skip to the final paragraph.
The film suffers from a formulaic plot, a comicly overacting Jason Patric, and some uninspired performances from these Losers. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who was fantastic as the ultimate anti-hero Comedian in Watchmen, feels as if he's forcing every line and emotion as team leader Clay. Idris Elba, who plays the traitorous Roque, shows glimpses of a good performance but ultimately falls flat. His betrayal to the team also comes completely out of left field, which is more due to the film's lack of a good script and character development than his performance. I personally love Elba as he played gangster Stringer Bell on my favorite television show of all time, The Wire. Hopefully he can overcome this and the soon-to-be flop Takers because he has a lot of potential. Saldana plays her boring, but sexy self, and Columbus Short tries to play a comedic Robin to Evans' Batman but just can't keep up.
The Losers joins an elite (and growing) list of forgettable to shitty comic book film adaptations: Ghost Rider, Punisher: War Zone, Jonah Hex, etc. Hopefully Hollywood will realize sooner rather than later that adaptations like The Dark Knight and Iron Man don't just happen. They had talented people working hard on them. It's too bad Christopher Nolan can't direct every comic book movie.
4/10
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