The Old Guard Review: This is another one of Netflix’s ventures into timeless heroes and fighters. It’s directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and stars Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Harry Melling.
The Old Guard Review
Same old
The Old Guard offers nothing new to the plate. It’s the same thing that you have tasted, just with a different star cast. This, consequently, doesn’t do anything other than mildly frustrate you.
The story follows a group of “immortals” who are captured by an evil scientist for nefarious purposes. This is something we have seen many times. Netflix has this habit of creating very similar content, with slight changes in plot. Thus, I was reminded of 6 Underground or Extraction, and that left a pretty sour taste in my mouth.
The movie starts off fun, with immortals and whatnot. But too soon you realise that there’s nothing new happening. The writers were so lazy that they didn’t even give us an explanation as to why they were immortals. And the icing on the cake? They can die, and no one knows when or why. Then that doesn’t make you an immortal, does it? It makes you a late bloomer.
Additionally, there’s absolutely no backstory to the characters. We get a bit about Andy, but it’s too little, and the others – nothing. Thus, we don’t care about what happens to them when they are tortured. Thus, it just feels boring and drawn out. There were a lot of times I wanted to skip ahead because there were too many dialogues, and I didn’t care.
No answers
A big part of The Old Guard is Nile, the newest “immortal” of the clan. She’s as clichéd a character as can be. She’s in the army. Her father, also in the army, died during combat. She’s feisty and doesn’t listen to anyone, and she realises at the last moment that she belongs to her new family. She has heart-to-heart conversations with almost everyone around her. And she also dreams of an old immortal who is probably not alive anymore (we don’t know, they don’t tell us).
She understandably asks for answers from someone who told her that she’ll tell her everything that she needs to know. However, when the time comes, Andy just tells her, “I don’t know. I told you I had answers, doesn’t mean you’ll like them.” Or something to that degree. So why tell her that you have answers? This is such a recurring thing in these types of movies. There are no answers for some of the major questions – absolutely none. So, after The Old Guard ends, you’re left confused and with a lot of questions.
Summing up
A movie cannot be made with good-looking people and exciting fight sequences. Unfortunately, Netflix tried to do exactly that with The Old Guard. However, we’re left with a movie which is lifeless.
However, the movie is pretty diverse in the casting sense, and it’s refreshing to see a gay couple engaging in some badass fighting (they fell in love during the Crusades, how cute is that?). Another positive is Charlize Theron herself. She takes care of her family with a great deal of authority that goes well with her captivating presence.
There’s also some focus on how wars and similar situations can have deep psychological impacts on people, and they carry it with them for as long as they live. In addition to this, the bond between Nile and Andy or between Andy and everyone else is pretty nice.
The Old Guard is great for people who are craving some action. However, it’s not something I haven’t seen before, and I have a feeling there’s some more of this to come.
Also, why is Dudley always the bad guy?!
The Old Guard is streaming on Netflix right now.
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