The Losers Remains A Fascinating And Action-Packed Flop
The Losers is a barely remembered 2010 action movie based on a lesser-known comic book published by DC Vertigo. The film did not do well at the box office, nor did it review particularly well, but it is an interesting film despite its failure.
The film premiered in April 2010, barely a year after the landmark title which changed superhero movies forever, Iron Man. The film was recently made available on Netflix, where it quickly reached the daily top 10, marking the first time in years that it was in the public consciousness.
Consider this pitch; an adaptation of a New York Times bestselling graphic novel, released before the Marvel Cinematic Universe owned the market. Now consider it starring pre Gamora Zoe Saldana, pre Negan Jeffery Dean Morgan, Idris Elba fresh from The Wire, and of course pre-Captain America Chris Evans. It sounds like a no-brainer audience hit, yet somehow it crashed and burned.
The film is a snarky comic book action-comedy and while the characters aren't technically superhuman, the film has the energy and characterization of one. The main characters are a band of charismatic soldiers of fortune, betrayed by a powerful government operative and forced to pull off heists, chases, and countless gunfights to get revenge. The plot is paper-thin, it throws in a couple of threadbare twists and turns that any moviegoer could see coming, but the real draw is the fast-paced action and quippy dialogue. The film really shines when the titular team is just hanging out, roasting each other, cracking jokes, and having a good time. Each member of the team has a specific role, like a militaristic Power Rangers, and it is fun to watch them operate as a team.
The obvious assumption for this film flopping would be that it isn't very good, and that assumption would not be terribly far off. The film is extremely simple, falling somewhere between the live-action Transformers franchise and the average Guy Ritchie piece in terms of intelligence. While that is certainly an element of the problem, it is not the whole of it. Bad movies succeed all the time, dozens of films with awful reviews make millions, and much has been made of the divide between audience and critic scores. Quality alone is not the silver bullet that killed The Losers, it's more complex than that.
One huge point of differentiation was budget, The Losers cost pennies to make when compared to an average superhero movie. The film's budget was $25 million, the lowest budget MCU film to date would be 2015's Ant-Man which cost $130 million, over 5 times as much. The big difference-maker is in special effects, The Losers features comparatively very little CGI, relying mostly on explosions, which are relatively inexpensive. The low budget could have aided the film, giving it a much shorter path to breaking even, but instead, it barely made its money back, before accounting for marketing costs.
Budget weakened the film, but a lower budget blockbuster has its place, a much bigger wound was created by the film's director. Sylvain White directed The Losers, at the time, he would have been best known for the 2007 dance film Stomp the Yard. White has directed dozens of hours of TV, from CSI to The Umbrella Academy he is responsible for many individual episodes of larger series. Unfortunately, White was also the hired gun chosen to direct the tragic 2018 disaster Slender Man. White was a bizarre choice at the time and has only gone on to have a stranger career since. His difficulties as a filmmaker shine through as many action scenes blur together, making a film that should feel dynamic and aggressive feel sluggish and repetitive.
The biggest blow to The Losers was likely the time in which it was released, an entirely unrecognizable film ecosystem to that of today. A cursory search of the film will find it surrounded by its contemporaries such as Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, or Battle: Los Angeles. The Losers released into a film landscape wherein most superhero movies not about Batman fell flat and tanked. The reputation of mid-budget action movies, especially those based on comic books was in a bad place and that ecosystem was even more unkind to the film than it deserved.
This is a rare case in which a film could actually be argued to be released before its time. Today, putting forth a film based on a graphic novel carries a level of cultural cache all its own. Not every comic book movie does well, but most huge movies coming out right now are comic book based. The stars of The Losers needed the right project to really break through, and in a funny coincidence, if the film released today, it would have a much better chance at success, even with its problems.
The Losers is a deeply imperfect film, but its successes and its failure offer an interesting look into the changing world of blockbuster film that has developed over the past decade. The Losers had some incredible talents, as well as some dodgy ones, but what really killed it was being put out into the wrong world.
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