Movie Review: The Old Guard

The Old Guard

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Starring: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Harry Melling, Matthias Schoenaerts, Luca Marinelli, Marwan Kenzari, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Rating: R

Runtime: 125 minutes

Adapted from Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez’s graphic novel, The Old Guard is a gripping film that puts human elements into a superhero story. Combined with an exceptional leading cast, action-packed fight scenes, and strong motivations from the characters, Gina Prince-Bythewood adds some new features to this superhero film despite the same old conventions that naturally come in this restricted genre. 

Led by an ancient warrior called Andy (Charlize Theron), a covert group of mercenaries who try to fight evil across the globe possesses one unique ability: immortality, or if you put it in a more pessimistic term, the inability to die. For unknown reasons, these four warriors do not know when they are going to die and are not even sure how they got their powers in the first place. As they go on a mission, their abilities get exposed by Steven Merrick, a pharmaceutical executive who tries to target the warriors and conduct human trial testing to extract their powers and earn money and fame. At the same time, the warriors unexpectedly discover a new immortal—a U.S. Marine Nile Freeman (KiKi Layne), and tries to help her adjust to the new life of a warrior.  

What makes this film possess more gravitas than other average comic-book movies and action thrillers is that not only do the characters have a clear motivation from the beginning, but it also gives enough background explanation to care for these characters. Right from the beginning until the end of the movie, it tells viewers who Andy and her teammates are and why they are so motivated to help save every corner of the earth. Often, action-oriented films seem to focus less on character development and only on the action, making viewers less invested in the characters.  

Furthermore, Charlize Theron continues to show her skills in action films. Her past performance and fight scenes and experience in Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde clearly show viewers that she can carry the movie with her charisma and charm by bringing her exemplary fighting choreography into this movie. This time, instead of War Rigs and pistols, she brings out an ax to slice and grind attackers and villains. She also brings complexity to her role, another reason to watch this film.  

While the storyline, fight scenes, and acting were above average, the soundtracks mismatched with the overall ambiance. I expected the score to have more grand instruments filled with drums, chorus backup vocals, and symphonies. These characters have battled for centuries to help save the world. However, songs like “Godspeed” by Frank Ocean, “The World We’ve Made” by Ruelle, and many more songs in the film felt too “pop-like” and disposable. It’s hard to describe it in words, but the reaction I expected was, “Wow. This is epic” instead of “Eh? What? Ok…” But surprisingly, just because the song choices did not feel epic enough, it did not necessarily detract from the whole movie-watching experience and added a unique tone and consistent style to the film.

As anticipated movies from 2020 are constantly getting delayed due to COVID-19, many people now have to rely on streaming services to watch new movies. 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us, including the movie industry. Thankfully, streaming services such as Netflix can release films like The Old Guard with strong female characters, fast-paced action sequences, and solid acting to entertain the audience.