OnScreen Review: "The Old Guard"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
With a canceled summer season of movie releases, we’re having to take what we can get where we can get it. Until it’s safe to open theaters, back up, streaming is the primary resource for movie content right now. In addition to the regular stream of new released Netflix films, some studios have chosen to release their film on streaming platforms instead of delaying them for a theatrical release. The Old Guard, is in the former camp, having been a Netflix release the entire time. I was surprised a few weeks ago to discover that this film was coming out, and even more surprised to discover that it was based on a comic book series.
The Old Guard, such as it is, is an elite mercenary group that is comprised of immortal human beings. They are led by Andy (Charlize Theron), the oldest of the bunch. She is so old that she’s forgotten how old she is, but her full name is Andromache of Scythia, so it’s heavily implied that she dates back a few millennia. The three others on here crew are Booker (Mathias Schoenaerts), Joe (Marwen Kenzari), and Nicky (Luca Marinelli). They stay secretive and hidden, but face a dangerous threat after repeat business for a former CIA agent named Copley (a criminally underused Chiwetel Ejiofor) puts them at risk at the same time as a five immortal name Nile (KiKi Layne) is revealed to them.
The movie is equal parts origin and action story, centered on the team’s attempts to figure out who Copley is and what he wants with them as well as bringing Nile into the fold and trying to explain who she is now, how her life has changed, and what it all means. The film definitely has fun with the concept of immortality; even though they can’t die, they can certainly feel pain. An opening scene where they lie dead on the floor, riddled with bullets, is shortly thereafter replayed to show how they got there and then shows them coming back alive to killing their would-be killers. There is also a twist on the immortality, so that there are some stakes involved in all of this. The immortality has an unknown expiration date; they live longer than normal human beings and come back to life and regenerate and heal, but eventually it runs out and everyone dies, they just don’t know when it’s their time.
Theron and Layne are the two stars of the film, with Theron’s Andy being the elite killer who has honed her skills for centuries and centuries while Layne’s Nile, a soldier in Afghanistan, is the audience stand-in and entry point into this world. A practical point of this too, is to use an established star like Theron to give some rub to Layne, a talented young, black actress who people first noticed in If Beale Street Could Talk. This is a very different role for her and that she is able to hold her own with Theron and the rest potentially opens up more doors for her in the future. Theron’s Andy is world-weary and jaded, disillusioned by her long life, what she has experienced, and the current state of affairs; she doesn’t think she is making a difference, despite her best efforts, and is ready to call it quits on humanity.
This film is dealing with a lot of well-worn action movie tropes, so a lot of it may feel familiar. Similar to movies like Men in Black, Kingsmen: The Secret Service, or even Ant-Man, The Old Guard uses the classic formula of the young new blood being brought into a secretive world and guided by an experienced and often weather or grizzled veteran. The new blood butts heads with their new mentor, they eventually form a bond, and the young newcomer injects some renewed purpose to keep fighting in the process. Just because it’s familiar, doesn’t necessarily make it bad, however. Much of the film is still quite enjoyable, even if you know some of the beats already.
Gina Prince-Bythewood is the director of the film. She is not a well-known director, but she has done several films prior to this, Love & Basketball (2000), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), and Beyond the Lights (2014). While I’ve only seen Love & Basketball, one thing I know is that her films are competent and have a consistent standard of quality. So as I said, aspects of the film are familiar and formulaic, but they are competently and efficiently done, so the quality of what you’re getting is on the higher end of the spectrum as opposed to a group of actors mailing it in or an overall subpar production. There’s a lot to be said for competency from directors, and Prince-Bythewood has shown in a variety of genres that she is capable of making good content. In fact, I may be more interested in seeking out her previous films and look forward to seeing new material from her.
The Old Guard is not re-inventing action movies and it’s not a shot in the arm to the genre I was perhaps looking for. What it is, though, is a consistently solid and steady action movie that hits all the familiar notes and doesn’t botch anything. It may not be elite at anything, but it is steady and delivers enough of the goods to be a satisfying two hours. It also leaves the door open for a sequel that could be even better, a sequel I would definitely be interested in seeing.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars