Big, splashy Hollywood films succeed or fail based on their characters. We’ve been taught to react with a certain distance to all the CGI, the explosions, the quirky 10-years-out-of-date dialogue.

But a good cast of likable people with likeable personalities still keeps us engaged with the plot. “The Losers” has this in spades, and manages to sneak a neat little tale of morality during war in there, too.

Our tale follows the titular gang of military black ops dudes, the Losers. They’re all the kind of slightly zany and energetic people that wouldn’t be slightly useful in a real war, but that just frees them up to act out their drama onscreen.

Team leader Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his troops botch an operation when the guy in charge, known only by his voice on the radio and the name “Max,” orders a move so horrific that the team cuts loose and swears revenge.

There’s great chemistry between the Losers, even if all of them seem to be oddly familiar representations of more A-list talent like Clive Owen and Johnny Depp. They’re men who do bad things but only if the reasons are truly good, and seeing a villain willing to murder for profit try to shut them down sparks a chase across the globe to bring justice.

The film is beautifully shot and well directed, keeping the narrative lively and giving each scene a concrete visual and emotional basis. It’s colorful and fast, like a film based on a comic should be.

The film veers into the ridiculous with aplomb, but never pulls over and blatantly winks into the camera. It trusts the audience and knows you’ve come to see a film where men jump away as explosions rocket out behind them.

And there’s political commentary here, to be sure. Max (Jason Patric) is smarmy and cruel, a little bit racist and representative of everything excessive about American foreign policy. He struts across the screen in immaculate white suits like he was borrowed from an ’80s action movie and the American flag pin on his lapel glints in the sun. One hand constantly sports a glove to cover a deep, bloody wound that won’t heal.

The set pieces are gorgeous and the film presents action with enough shaky-cam to feel gritty but not enough to induce the usual dry heaves. You never lose track of the characters in relation to the fight, however, and you’re always sure why the fight is happening in the first place.

Some jokes that fall flat, and to a certain degree I wish the film had pushed some of the darker elements to earn an R rating.

On the whole, however, “The Losers” is an adventure film that can still make us revel in the exotica of far-off lands. More importantly, it manages to be a film that can serve as a reminder to some of the unpleasantness our actions have inflicted on those out of sight and mind.

For a weekend movie, “The Losers” hits its mark.

Alexander Hutchins is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Ankeny.