The Review: The Old Guard

The Old Guard 5/10

Full of spoilers. I just watched this movie called The Old Guard that I didn't know was coming out or even existed until earlier today. I watched the trailer for it and actually wish I hadn't and just went in completely unaware of any immortality stuff. I watched the trailer again and said “Wow. They really show the whole movie.” This is about a team of mercenaries that can not die. Or can they? They can. But it is unexpected and can happen at any time. After one gig where they had been set up, killed, came back to life, and found a camera the leader Andy decides that she doesn't want to do it anymore. Meanwhile a Marine named Nile gets killed in Afghanistan and freaks out her fellow soldiers when she heals from a knife to the neck wound that had killed her. She is freaked out too. The mercenary team feels her die and Andy is like “Shit. Why a new one now?” Andy goes off to find Nile after the team put pieces of what they saw together.

Andy sneaks onto a fully full ass base and kidnaps Nile after she is told that she is discharged and being sent to Germany. Why? Because a guy named Copley that the team knows turned on them because his wife died and now he thinks he can help the world no longer have sicknesses. I started checking out after finding that as his reasoning. Andy takes her and Nile jumps from the vehicle. Andy then shoots her in the head and Nile comes back to life after also stabbing Andy. On a plane Nile and Andy get into a fight. I liked that scene. I like the fights in this. Nile meets the team and they give some backstory to Andy who has been alive thousands of years. Joe and Nicky used to be on opposing sides in battle hundreds of years ago but are lovers now. Booker was a deserter during Napoleon's war. Nile doesn't want to be a part of this but sticks around and wants to see her family.

Nile gets on with the team and on their first night together Joe and Nicky are kidnapped and Joe has his guts sliced open. Andy goes and kills the rest of the soldiers and Booker heals. Nicky and Joe end up being experimented on by this evil dude who did not fit in this at all. He felt like a character out of some other cheaper comic book film. Fast forward and it turns out that Booker betrayed the team. Andy is losing her healing ability and could die. Being close to immortal don't seem as fun because you just watch folks die. It's miserable.

What I liked about this movie? The fight scenes were done really well. I knew that when people got shot that they would just come back anyway but that didn't stop me from enjoying the fights. The acting was okay. For a bunch of people that have been alive for hundreds or thousands of years they aren't that interesting. Like, they show Andy's past life and the stuff she did and that is more interesting than what is happening in present day. No one has a special skill. If you have been alive for that long fighting you should almost never get hit by anyone in a fight let alone a foot soldier. Something that also bugged me was people letting themselves get shot. It was like in Bloodshot. Just because you can not die (almost) doesn't mean you should just stand there eating bullets. And the music made me turn my volume down a few times. I actually hated the music. This is on Netflix. You can watch it if you got it but you aren't missing out on anything if you don't. They hint that there could be another film based off a story from Highlander. Seriously, a character died drowning for years just like one of the characters.

Charlize Theron as Andy

KiKi Layne as Nile Freeman

Matthias Schoenaerts as Booker

Marwan Kenzari as Joe

Luca Marinelli as Nicky

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Copley

Harry Melling as Merrick

Veronica Ngo as Quynh

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