By Patrick Bartlett (Twitter: @alleywaykrew)
It’s actually kind of nice when an adaptation of a comic book comes out that I’m not familiar with. As a comic nerd, I spend most film adaptations comparing them to the source material (favorably or otherwise). However, I haven’t read much of “The Old Guard”. I guess I should note that I have read a bit of it. I’ve been a fan of Greg Rucka’s work for a long time. His book, “Gotham Central”, is probably one of my favorite comics ever. I check out pretty much everything he writes. He does tend to put out a lot of material though, so I often check out first issues and then make plans to pick the series up later. I remember liking the beginning of “The Old Guard”. I had always intended to read more of it, so I was excited when I heard him a few months ago talking about a movie based on it coming soon from Netflix.
For the record, I think Netflix doing blockbusters is bizarre. When Netflix started doing original movies, it was like the return of the mid-budget film that major studios have all but abandoned. It feels like most releases these days are either big-budget blockbusters or micro-budget indies. I’m not saying I don’t see and enjoy that stuff but I’m confident that most movie geeks shared the happiness I felt from seeing what Netflix seemed to be doing. Movies that aren’t overly large or small, movies that exist somewhere in the middle… it was cool to see again. In the last couple of years though, Netflix has gotten more and more into doing big blockbusters of their own (with admittedly mixed results). Their approach seems to be less hands-on than most studios, which at least makes for less homogenous end products. That’s part of why I find “The Old Guard” as fascinating as I do. In different hands, it could have been a fairly straightforward take on a blockbuster film that if it’s not in the superhero subgenre, is very closely adjacent to it. Yet if you let Greg Rucka, who wrote the comic, write the script (they did) and hire a director like Gina Prince-Bythewood, who has never done anything close to an action film before…you’re at the very least going to end up with something interesting. They certainly did.
I’m going to try to not spoil anything except for the basic plot of “The Old Guard”. It is about a small unit of warriors who basically immortal. The movie even opens with them being fatally shot before our very eyes, only to return to the scene later on and we see them get up and retaliate. On the surface, the concept is almost like a vampire story. Those stories usually fall somewhere between the angst of eternal life or the joy of partying forever. Here, the characters use their abilities to help people in clandestine ways around the globe. Honestly, if you have that skillset and you seemingly can’t die or even be hurt for long, that makes perfect sense as far as I’m concerned. I imagine there’s only so much one can do with eternal life before things get boring. Moreover, it turns out as the story unfolds that their missions seemingly have a more global and historical impact than the characters even realize. In the process, the group encounters an evil Martin Shkreli-type big pharma magnate who wants to capture them, learn how their regenerative abilities work, and exploit them for pharmaceutical ends.
As I said, the basic plot could and probably would be executed in a far more basic and simplistic manner if this was going to be released by a major studio on thousands of screens worldwide. That’s just often the way it is. “The Old Guard” might have been entertaining and maybe even good but it probably would have been whittled down to the most basic, easy to digest version of this story. However, that’s sidestepped here because of the writer, the director, and the cast assembled. Said cast, led by Charlize Theron, have a sort of melancholic quality that you don’t generally get from movies like this. Interestingly, even with characters sharing this quality, things never really delve into nihilism. The four main characters we’re introduced to are Andy (aka Andromache of Scythia, played by Theron), lovers Joe and Nicky (played by Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli respectively, characters who have been together since “killing” each other in the Crusades), and Booker, their youngest member at around 200 years old (played by Matthias Schoenaerts). If you’ve ever seen anything in the “Highlander” franchise, it’s probably easier to understand the next part than it may be for most. They become aware of another immortal potential member of their unit, U.S. marine Nile Freeman (played by KiKi Layne), when she’s killed on a mission in the middle east. Nile is as much the way into understanding the characters and the world as the man who seemingly sends them to their death at the beginning of the film, James Copley (played by the always amazing Chiwetel Ejiofor). Through Ejiofor’s character and his years of research, we learn about the team’s global and historical impact. Through Layne’s character, we get more of that but we also get to know the characters on a more personal, intimate level. It’s through the eyes of the Nile character that we as an audience learn about the obvious malaise of their seemingly endless lives. We learn the depth of what they (especially Booker and Andy) feel. It’s just so much more than is usually accomplished or even attempted in a movie like this. The whole cast is great. I suppose it kind of goes without saying that Charlize Theron is very good here but the real surprise to me was Matthias Schoenaerts as Booker. What he manages to pull off in an ensemble like this is incredibly impressive. He reminds me a lot of a young Viggo Mortensen and if he doesn’t steal the whole movie with his performance, he comes as close as possible.
I’d describe the villains in the same detail that I discussed the main characters but the villains being as crudely drawn as they are is really the movie’s main weakness. The villains are basic fare for something like this. As I said earlier, you have your standard-issue evil pharmaceutical CEO, Merrick, his scientist henchman (henchwoman, I guess?) and his traditional solider-y henchman ever dutifully at his side… neither of which have names I can remember. They exist to be taken down by our heroes in spectacular fashion. That actually kind of leads into what I would say is the movie’s other major weakness, even though I should note that I in no way consider it a fatal flaw. When “The Old Guard” is a straight-up action movie, it’s great. The action scenes are fairly innovative while being evocative of the “John Wick” series in a fun way. Having said that, I realize that a lot of the character scenes here are great and absolutely necessary to the narrative, they occasionally bog the movie down. It’s hard to be patient with the film and not get antsy for the next action sequence. That’s probably the main thing you get from Greg Rucka writing a script for Gina Prince-Bythewood to direct. There’s a fair amount of dialogue and a serious dramatic weight to this story and characters you care about here. Because of that, I’m not advocating cutting the movie to the bone. I think the weight given to the characters and the story is really what’s stuck with me the most after watching the film. I just can’t help but think the movie could be even stronger with some of that extra bloat cut. Having said that, small character beats being the prevailing parts of an action movie that stick in my memory directly after watching it is not something that happens often. It’s appreciated.
Even though I kind of miss the days when Netflix would put out a bunch of smaller movies for consumption in a given year… their seemingly hands-off approach has made for more intriguing work than you traditionally get from blockbuster filmmaking. I’m not sure what “The Old Guard” would look like in different hands but if more comic book action movies felt like this one feels, the filmmaking landscape might be more interesting. I’d happily see more films like this. I’d even be glad to see “The Old Guard” become a franchise so I can spend more time with these particular characters. The positive aspects of this movie far outweigh the negative. It’s not just fun, it’s a legitimately solid action movie and something worthy of recommendation.
To find out where this film is available to stream, click here: Just Watch