Review: The Old Guard
Monday, July 20, 2020 at 3:10PM by Lynn Lee
In my more fanciful moments, I have a pet theory that Charlize Theron is a reincarnated ancient goddess. I’m not just talking about her statuesque beauty, effortless glamour, or seeming immunity to aging. No, I mean her superhuman ability to batter, dirty up, strip down and sometimes strip away that beauty in service of a role…only to reemerge in the same state of impossible physical perfection as before, as if nothing had happened.
Who better, then, to play a female warrior who never dies or grows old and whose wounds heal without a trace? While Theron’s played a lot of certifiable badasses in recent years, she hasn’t often been cast as a bona fide superhero, and the results have been mixed when she has (Aeon Flux is the last that comes to mind, unless you count Hancock). I’m happy to report she finds a good fit with The Old Guard, Netflix’s latest attempt to make us all forget we ever needed to go to a movie theater...
Based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball, Beyond the Lights), The Old Guard centers on a small group of warriors-for-hire who have been around for literally centuries, if not millennia. Their leader, Andromache (Theron), called Andy for short, is the oldest by far, though she never specifies her age; Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), her de facto second in command, fought in the Napoleonic Wars; and the inseparable Joe and Nicky (Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli) were soldiers originally on opposite sides of the Crusades who eventually fell in love. They don’t work for free, but neither do they take on jobs for the money; they fight, as one of them explains, for what they think is right.
At the film’s outset, Andy is showing signs of mission fatigue, not surprisingly for someone who’s had to die and come back to life more times than she can count. She isn’t given much chance to express her discontent, however, before the team is hit with the double whammy of a job gone horribly wrong, exposing them to discovery by unscrupulous corporate interests, and their sudden collective psychic awareness that a another of their kind has come into being. (Unlike the Highlander, it appears there can always be one more.) The new one turns out to be a young female U.S. marine named Nile Freeman (KiKi Layne, so luminous in If Beale Street Could Talk) who has no idea how she came back to life after being brutally killed while on duty in Afghanistan.
The Old Guard thus sets up a dual track narrative, between the team’s efforts to outmaneuver the enemy who’s threatening to seize and forcibly exploit them and their concurrent efforts to recruit Nile to their ranks. The result is what feels like two different movies. The first has most of the action and suspense; the second is much quieter and slower, but ultimately more compelling, playing to Prince-Bythewood’s strengths as an actor’s director who knows how to draw a natural, unforced intimacy and emotional charge from one-on-one scenes that could otherwise easily lapse into cliché.
Theron and Layne have a great master-pupil dynamic, and the latter effectively conveys the bewilderment and anguish of a young woman whose entire existence, beliefs, and support system are ripped away from her in a single moment. As her older, wiser, wearier mentors who wrestle constantly with the personal and psychological burdens brought on by their “gift,” Theron and Schoenaerts give just the thoughtful and nuanced performances you’d expect from actors of their caliber and experience. Kenzari and Marinelli aren’t given as much to do, but do make a devoted and absurdly cute couple who demonstrate a more positive and downright romantic attitude towards their fate.
As for the A-plot, it’s pretty by the numbers, turning on the greed of a cardboard cutout villain (Harry Melling) who brings to mind a British version of “Pharma-bro” Martin Shkreli. There’s also an ex-CIA operative named Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) whose main function for two-thirds of the movie is to look increasingly conflicted about his role in the standoff between Pharma-bro and the immortals. Ejiofor does his best, but can’t quite overcome the fact that the more that’s revealed about Copley, the less sense he makes as a character.
Despite these limitations, the face-offs between the protagonists and the bad guys move briskly and efficiently, and it’s always thrilling to watch Charlize Theron open up a can of whoop-ass. We also learn that the immortals aren’t truly immortal, adding an extra layer of uncertainty as the film moves through an unexpected (and frankly unconvincing) betrayal towards the expected final confrontation. While the outcome is never truly in doubt, its emotional cost shadows the team to the end and beyond.
The Old Guard is just good enough to make me wish it were better. It’s a bit overly solemn and downbeat – no quippy Marvel-style banter here – though not nearly as ponderous as some of the sloggier D.C. Comics entries. It suffers from the constraints of the superhero movie formula and the need to reduce the narrative of characters with such expansive histories to a single chapter. Indeed, the nature of the source material may have been better suited to a TV series or miniseries than a two-hour movie. But by the same token, the movie sets up the possibility of a sequel that feels organic and like something I’d actually be interested in watching. Like its heroes, The Old Guard may not be immortal, but it certainly has the potential for an extended lifespan. B
Reader Comments (17)
I really like the movie, but I wholeheartedly agree that this material would feel more at home as a TV show or miniseries. In any case, why Netflix hasn't announced a sequel is beyond me.
I thought this was a mini series when I first heard of it. Is this Oscar eligible?
*yawn*
I’ve been loving Luca Marinelli since Martín Eden so I was excited to see him here.
This definitely feels like TV pilot, which was disappointing. If you want to make a miniseries - just make a miniseries. Plus I’m really over movies/TV shows fetishizing guns and violence.
I liked it as a dumb-but-not-too-dumb action movie, tons of fun to watch Charlize in this role, and I think it would have dragged on as a longer miniseries.
Proud of our Volpi Cup winner Luca Marinelli! <3
I really had a great time watching this. It was the first time watching something at home that I really felt like I was missing the theater/communal experience. It's exactly the sort of thing me and my movie-going buddy would see on a crowded week three of release after hearing, "It's actually pretty good." Nothing groundbreaking here, but it was well made, and the story was well told. I would watch an entire movie with the characters played by Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli. If that "he's not my boyfriend" speech doesn't lead Kenzari to a path of bonafide stardom, 2020 would somehow become even more baffling than it already is.
How heavenly to see a “new” movie. I’ve been missing movie theatres so much.
Furiosa in Mad Max, Lorraine Broughton in Atomic Blonde, Andromache of Scythia in The Old Guard... I love Theron’s gallery of action heroes.
“ adding an extra layer of uncertainty as the film moves through an unexpected (and frankly unconvincing) betrayal towards the expected final confrontation”. Well, for me it was very obvious from the beginning of the movie. It is very entertaining and very by the numbers (hence the not-so-surprising betrayal.
I didn't like this one. I thought it started well with a nifty '90s action movie vibe and great character dynamics, but I felt it pretty quickly deteriorated into contrivances (there's a drug runner airport just a short drive from an army base? how did Charlze get out of that base with a soldier over her shoulder? where did that plane land on the outskirts of Paris?) and thought the action was largely sloppily made. Please, a long shot so we can see actors interacting without cutting so much! Please, a proper musical score and not randomly inserted songs.
The idea of superheroes who see the world getting worse is a super interesting one given where the world is at right now and how much other films that have nudged that idea haven't really gone deep with it (Captain America, Logan), but ultimately didn't work. The thing the end of the movie teases seems like a much more interesting story, too.
Not the best action film ever but it's entertaining, the cast is good and some characters are interesting (esp Theron's, Layne's and the couple Marinelli-Kenzari). The villain is a disappointment (better his sidekicks) and the central plot is not very interesting
Loved it!
Kenzari and Marinelli oh lord be still me
I saw it on Netflix and it was great. This is something I would see in the theaters
Saw this on netflix and I was hooked. I watched the entire season in one sitting. I was very disappointed that there wasn't more. Good cast, interesting characters and good dynamic. I really enjoyed it as it was one of the few interesting things to watch on netflix. I hope that they continue the storyline with ongoing seasons. Definitely a thumbs up from me.
Things I wish I'd said. The movie is just good enough to make meI wish it were better. It needed to shave off about 30 minutes. Just cutting the walking to safe houses to rest would eliminate 45 minutes. And that unconvincing betrayal at the end was just wrong. Otherwise, the movie was terrific.
Charlize elevated this material to a fault. She acted circles around everyone, with the exception of Layne in moments (the airplane scene was easily the film's highpoint). Melling, Schoenaerts, Ejiofor and others are good actors but they looked awful here, and I think it's because Theron was so good in contrast. It was an enjoyable film 99% because of Theron, and I have absolutely no interest in a sequel.
Excellent review, and spot on about Charlize. Adding this to the queue!