Dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood
I’m late, I’m late! But I’ve finally watched Netflix’s newest original film. Based on a graphic novel, The Old Guard follows a team of immortals who welcome a new member into their ranks while also attempting to avoid the evil head of a pharmaceutical company who is hunting them down. While the movie does suffer a bit of origin story syndrome, overall it’s a fun story about the expected perils of immortality held down by excellent action sequences, charismatic performances and main characters with so much backstory that you want to know more about.
Charlize Theron is Andy, the eldest and most disillusioned of the group. While the team has spent millennia trying to do good, she’s tired and has mostly given up on humanity when the world appears to only get worse despite their efforts. She’s convinced to get back in the action by Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), Nicky (Luca Marinelli), and Joe (Marwan Kenzari) but her cynicism appears to be proven correct when their attempt to help sends them on the run. Meanwhile Kiki Layne plays Nile, a United States marine who is killed, reawakened as an immortal and forced to join the team, serving as the audience’s entry into this new world.
Had I not known this was based on a series, I probably could have guessed. The movie is filled with teases of lore that there’s never time to follow through on. Character’s centuries of history is cram packed into expositional dumps because there isn’t the space to let it breathe. Despite this, the chemistry between the Guard is good enough that you believe these people have known each other for a millenia even if we don’t get to see it. Nicky and Joe in particular, the only couple amongst the group, have a flawless rapport. Their relationship is just as romantic as it is familial, they’ve been together for hundreds of years and it comes across that way. I think with more time, the shared history of the team could have been explored better, perhaps in small vignettes in a Good Omens episode 3 vibe. Nile slots into the team with a refreshingly downbeat attitude. The despairing attitude of the newbie forces these eternals to reevaluate their own lives and the good they can and have done.
The action sequences in this film are impressive. In a world of superhero branded action movies, you get used to a certain method of fighting, wherein enemies get knocked out in one punch, or kicked and go flying back three feet. This film felt much more grounded by comparison. It takes multiple hits to down someone and you can see the weight and strength imbalance with certain characters. The characters are fierce and lethal but they can be hurt and their pain is apparent. It reminded me a lot of the visibly exhausting fight choreography in Netflix’s Daredevil. Charlize has long established her action chops but Kiki Layne was the real surprise. It did take me a minute to buy into her as an action hero (perhaps the lingering impact of her Beale Street role), but by the end she looked as comfortable with a gun in hand as any of her companions.
The music does feel incongruous with the movie at times. Unlike something like Birds of Prey where the zany, on the nose, electric pop matches the vibe of the movie- everything feels really serious in this film and then you’re like “damn is that Khalid.”
One of this film’s major flaws, and indeed an industry wide trend, is the criminal underutilization of Chiwetel Ejiofor. He’s so talented! He’s so charismatic! Why do people keep giving him two-bit roles! The minute his role and motivations were revealed I was just like “oh…that’s it?”. Copley is somehow a bad ass of potential value to the Guard but also the most unrealistically naive character? I’m not sure how he’s depicted in the graphic novel, but it seemed as though some very simple changes could have been made to make him more three-dimensional.
The villain was a very middle of the road bad guy, falling somewhere on the Bland Baddie scale between Riz Ahmed in Venom and Guy Pearce in Bloodshot. I endured his scenes because he’s the antagonist but he wasn’t quirky enough to be fun and not sinister enough to be intimidating. Every time he was on screen I was just like “is this thomas middleditch? This is definitely not middleditch? Damnit I know him from somewhere…Is he related to middleditch?” (Update, Merrick is played by Harry Melling. He was Dudley in Harry Potter. I did in fact know him from somewhere).
Despite being unimpressed with the villain, I’m so on board for the potential of The Old Guard. I’m a sucker for a found family film, and they were believable enough on that front to get me wanting more. With the groundwork laid down in this film, it’s clear that a sequel could really get into the meat of the storytelling without worrying about establishing who these characters are. This was a fun action film and a great distraction from the pandemic doldrums. That pre-credit teaser promises a lot and I, personally, would like to see it.