[img]7|left|||no_popup[/img] It must be true that “The Losers” started life as a groundbreaking comic book; I’ve never heard of it. Or perhaps “groundbreaking” is merely the buzzword of an enthusiastic publicity department. The good news is that it matters only to purists. Here is a film that works so well that one can wonder how a comic book could expect to achieve the visceral momentum of a film. The better question may be to what extent it is necessary to single out the comic book origin, as if that fact is still able to surprise. As the New Yorker’s Anthony Lane points out in his critique of “Kick-Ass,” we are tripping over films adapted from comic books. Comic books, video games, amusement park rides – apparently even board games, with a Battleship film reportedly in development – have steadily joined the ranks of bestsellers and literary classics as fountains of Hollywood scripts. At some point in time, the notion that we can extract a successful film from these media will not rate a mention.

Of course, the comic book medium isn’t completely detached from director Sylvain White’s vision. We are thankfully are spared the portentous approach of adapting the books frame for frame, as Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller did with Miller’s over-boiled “Sin City.” But White does add a little touch here and little touch there – camera work and flourishes that remind us where The Losers got their start. Naturally, he introduces the characters by name and specialty with comic book panels. And Max, the story’s antagonist, is a villain right at home in the comics — or the movies, which is convenient. Such a capricious killer and serial double-crosser would hardly live long enough in the real world to amass a fortune and, critically, immense power within the U.S. government’s defense apparatus. As presented by Jason Patric, however, Max is a magnetic Bond-class villain, charming even when behaving like the kind of casual jerk whom no one would talk to if it weren’t for his expensive suits. He doesn’t have to be realistic as long as he is plausible in the movie’s world. So if it is necessary to stamp The Losers as a “comic book movie,” it may simply be due to the tendency of comic book writers and artists to sacrifice plausibility in favour of the dramatic and the exciting. Then again, isn’t that the definition of a B-movie? Maybe we can speed along the demise of the strange category of the “comic book” story.

As is often the case with a familiar premise – a group of special ops soldiers are betrayed by the mysterious Max and assumed dead, a convenient state that gives them the opportunity to seek revenge and save the world – it’s not so much the premise but the execution that wins us over. In a sense, The Losers is something of a throwback to a more innocent age of action-adventure, if ever there was such a time. The good guys are noble, the bad guys are nasty, and fashion shenanigans like dressing the heroes in black and villains in white are a quaint relic of a gentler irony. White’s restraint, however, is what makes the film effortlessly cool. The Losers isn’t stylized, but it does have style. Action is staged quickly and, at times, grandly, but never with anything other than old-school affection for slow-motion, stunts, gunplay, exotic locales (often times Puerto Rico in its many facets), and the occasional explosion and quick-cut editing. Though The Losers does have moments of brutality, it is refreshing in that in concentrates on the action and not on sadistic bloodshed, all while maintaining a classical moral backbone that in recent times has given way to bleak, bad faith nihilism.

The ensemble sparkles with personalities that inhabit the familiar archetypes of the special ops unit; Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the intense and moral team leader, Idris Elba as the dangerous and aggressive demolitions expert, Columbus Short as the wry pilot/driver, and Oscar Jaenada as the strong and silent sniper type. Of the group, Zoe Saldana doesn’t quite ignite her role as the Losers’ seductive and enigmatic ally – she gets by well enough – but Chris Evans compensates by commanding his scenes in the role of the goateed and bespectacled Jensen. As is the rule for techies, even buff ones, Evans borders on the geeky – and gets to command some of the film’s best scenes.

It all adds up to a film that has the attitude of a True Lies and the sheer kinetic energy of a Die Hard. Forget about the comics vs. film distinction, The Losers is just pure fun.

Entertainment: ** (out of two)
Craft: ** (out of two) 

The Losers. Directed by Sylvain White. Written by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt. Based on the comic book by Andy Diggle. Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Oscar Jaenada and Jason Patric. 98 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for sequences of intense action and violence, a scene of sensuality and language).

Frédérik invites you to discuss The Losers at his blog, www.inkandashes.net.