The Old Guard (2020)
a review by Evan Landon
When my mom (yes, the very same Dinah Walker from the Villainous Cinema podcasts) said I should stay up after work & watch this 2020 action film based off of the 2017 comic book by DC comics writer, Greg Rucka, & Argentinean artist, Leandro Fernández, I was a bit skeptical. Mostly because I had not heard hide nor hair of this film, it's production, any trailers, etc. It was also dumped to Netflix after this entire lockdown of the planet occured, so ya cannot really blame the movie for not overhyping the project. Perhaps, that works in it's favour.
The film is a very sharp look at what we see “comic book heroes” to be these days; some of these characters are a little outrageous, but also very interesting. The main character, Andromache (...or Andy) of Scythia (Charlize Theron), is an immortal warrior over a thousand years old & put together a team of 3 other immortal mercenaries (Booker, Joe, & Nicky) after witnessing her partner in crime of over hundred of years be dropped into the ocean in an iron maiden. They find a new immortal soldier to fill their ranks after being caught in a CIA/Big Pharma trap to exploit the secret in their immortality. I won't spoil too much more, but that is just the tip of the iceberg here.
Something incredibly refreshing about this film is how diverse the characters are from your average action comic book adaptation are. There are a lot of shoutouts to the LGBT movement and women empowerment that is unfortunately absent for the most part in most Marvel and DC comic films (a handful withstanding, of course), yet this one pulls it off unapologetically thanks to the great screenplay by the writer (which is prob the most essential part to a story) and the direction of Gina Prince-Bythewood. Think what you want about any of that, but it does add to a compelling story to which I did enjoy.
The action sequences are also top-notch, leaving the viewer with the same satisfaction as a “John Wick-style” movie, all the while making its own style as a comic book genre superhero flick. When making an action film, all you have to do is a few things in the story and this one accomplishes all of them. The characters are also very strong, although there may be too many of them to literally fit into a two hour frame. But you cannot do that, right? I don't know.
3 out of 5