@IAMSCF
From the writer/director of Love & Basketball, Gina Prince-Bythewood, with a screenplay by the actual creator and writer of the comic the movie is based on (whhhaaaat a concept), Greg Rucka, we have Netflix’s newest foray into Superhero Action Films with The Old Guard…
Charlize Theron is Andy, the leader of a tight knit four man crew of nearly immortal warriors. It’s a globe trotting adventure where we quickly get a ton of action, bullets and blood. The team gains its first newest member in over 200 years when a U.S. Marine (Kiki Layne) learns she’s just like them.
We learn that this group has been together since at least The Crusades, and have kept themselves and their talents hidden from the world ever since. But in today’s modern age of everyone having an live camera broadcasting to the world all the time at once in their pocket, it’s getting harder and harder to stay in the shadows.
The team finds themselves in the cross-hairs of a company that wants to capture, dissect and study the immortal warriors to unlock their secrets for their own financial gains. Not veering off too much from the source material published by Image Comics with the help of Rucka’s Co-Creator and artist Leo Fernandez is blessing here. No added wacky comic relief, no “add this scene to sell the action figures” or “clearly added scene for the music single tie in” either. There’s no bloat on this film. It’s all meat, blood & bone.
The film contains more dramatic scenes than the average superhero films does, but it absolutely delivers during the action scenes. Hand-to-hand combat, guns, swords, full speed white knuckle action filled carnage. Thankfully the crew didn’t use that “close up cut cut cut blur blur” action scenes that most non-cgi superhero films use under the guise of “artistic vision”. Everything here is visually clear and stunningly brutal and beautiful.
Since most folks will be walking into this cold — since it’s not based on a 50-year old comic book series — The Old Guard has very little prepacked fan-demanding baggage that usually bloats The first in a series of films from “the other guys” films. Yes, it’s a origin story, but at least this isn’t the same ol’ story we’ve already seen redone multiple times since 2001. It’s a modern superhero myth being born for the modern era of action and comic book fans.
Now, it’s superhero film.. so of course you need to stick through the credits. You’re welcome, in advance. 3.25/5 Bibles.
-Sean Farrell