THE LOSERS (2010, Blu-ray released July 20, 2010 – MSRP $35.99)
Every fourth film these days seems to be a comic book adaptation. I’m not complaining. As a once faithful reader of weekly cartoon fun, I find Blu-ray titles like The Losers to be mostly entertaining whether I’ve read the four-colour source material or not.
The Losers has more kabams than plot but anyone going into a viewing of the film shouldn’t be surprised by that. Stylish, on-screen “BOOMS” (à la the Adam West Batman television show from the 60s) and cheezy comic style one-liners litter this story of five super special-forces troops-with-morals who get their revenge on the government that has betrayed them and left them for dead. The Losers are not your typical soldiers though but a diverse collection of characters; We’ve got the goateed dork (future Captain America, Chris Evans), the silent assassin who doesn’t want you to touch his hat (Óscar Jaenada), the conflicted leader (Watchmen‘s Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the angry man who questions his blind loyalty to his leader (The Wire‘s Idris Elba) and the family man (Columbus Short) with a newborn son on the way. They all have great comic book names like Cougar, Pooch, Clay and Roque and they team up with an equally dangerous babe named Aisha (Star Trek‘s Zoe Saldana) with ulterior motives.
Who cares.
I’m watching this film to be entertained by the massive explosions and the cool guns and the unending stream of things being blown up and the even bigger guns. The quick edits and zig-zagging camera action are a virtual tennis match for the eyes. Like I said, I’ve never read the DC/Vertigo comics so I can’t vouch for the faithfulness of the adaptation to film but the artwork I’ve since seen from the books really impresses me. (The opening title art is done by comics illustrator Jock and it’s great!) I find it hard to believe that director Sylvain White went from hip hop dance film Stomp the Yard to this, but he delivers a nice looking, stylish, action-packed-smashup with a profound comic-book feel. Some critics could, and have, torn this film to pieces. Those are the same type of people who don’t appreciate a classic super-hero style of writing with predictable one-liners and stereotypes of the sort that can grace the four-colour pages of a comic. The film is meant to be a diversion, not ground breaking art.
Warner, this film isn’t for everyone but it was for me.
Just the same, The Losers Blu-ray presentation will most likely not please everyone. WHV has delivered what appears to be a technically perfect, detailed encode of the film – I didn’t spot a hint of artifacting or compression noise – but the visual language of the film involves searing colours, white-hot blow-outs and inky black holes that might prove to be a turn-off for those with sensitive retina. Photographer Scott Kevan‘s work looks stunning here, don’t get me wrong, but it is very stylized and might not really be your cup of tea.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is every bit as muscular and intense as the visuals. Get ready to have your head blown off by an incredibly aggressive and dynamic audio experience that will give even the best sound system a workout. Dialogue remains clear, for the most part, only eclipsed at times by John Ottman‘s roaring yet playful score.
If The Losers fails at all on its mission to kick Blu-ray butt, it would be in the special features available on the disc. After all the awesomeness on display throughout the film, the only extras you’ll find to follow up with are a handful of brief but entertaining featurettes and a single, 1-minute long deleted scene. The three EPK style short-docs total a whopping 30-minutes or so, when watched one after the other. Not a whole lot to chew on but better than a kick in the teeth, I guess. The disc is rounded out with a lengthy, standard-def trailer for Batman: Under the Red Hood and BD-Live functionality.
