The Old Guard movie review

MOVIE TITLE:   The Old Guard

RATING:  R

LENGTH: 2 hours 5 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE:   A-

IN A NUTSHELL:

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, this superhero movie is based on the graphic novel The Old Guard: Force Multiplied 1 by Greg Rucka, which means this film WILL have sequels.  In fact, at least one sequel is currently scheduled by Netflix and I’m glad to hear it because I was completely entertained by the story and would love to learn more about these characters.

The screenplay was actually written by Greg Rucka, so the movie is really close to the source material.  It’s about some immortals that try to keep their existence a secret, while scientists try to find and exploit their powers.  It’s a really cool idea to gather warriors from different time periods.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

• Lots of bloody, dead bodies
• TONS of violence
• Profanity, including F-bombs.
• Two gay men kiss.
• The comic books portray a lot of sex scenes with Andy, but they were taken out of the movie.
• Modern and ancient weapons.

THEMES:

• Fighting for what’s right
• Teamwork
• Time
• Your life’s purpose
• Loyalty
• Family
• Love

THINGS I LIKED:

• I love Charlize Theron.  She’s believable in every role and is a movie machine, pumping out two films per year since 2014.  She read the graphic novel when she was shooting the movie Atomic Blonde and thought it should be made into a film, so she produced this.  If you haven’t seen that movie yet, you can click here to read my review of Atomic Blonde  She does incredible stunt work and is gorgeous, as always.  When is she going to start aging? Maybe she IS immortal.
• The ensemble cast is great and includes Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, and Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor.
• You get to spend some time in Morocco, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Paris, and England.
• The movie shows some pretty tough American women soldiers.
• I always appreciate some humor, even in dramas.
• The script tries to teach us a lot about each character so that we care about them.  That’s important since they can’t die, so it would normally be hard to feel tension when they’re in danger of their lives.  We learn a little about their past, so we begin to care about them.  I’m excited to learn more about them in the sequel.
• The stunt work isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s still very good.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

• There’s a lot of exposition, although I admit it’s needed.
• Some of the camera work is shaky because the scenes were shot from far away on zoom.
• The rules of their immortal rejuvenation aren’t super clear.
• Some of the characters’ motivations switch back and forth, which can be frustrating.
• Some of the music choices were odd because lyrics would cut into a dramatic moment.
• It would have been fun to exaggerate the differences between these immortals that highlighted the time they were from.  That seemed like a missed opportunity.  They all felt very modern.

FUNNY LINES:

• “Is this even safe?” –  Nile  (Kiki Layne)               “Does it matter?”  –   Andy (Charlize Theron)
• “You said you had answers!”   –  Nile                    “I didn’t say you’d like them.” – Andy
• “So, are you good guys or bad guys?” – Nile        “It depends on the century.”  – Nicky (Luca Marinelli)

INTERESTING LINES:

• “Mmmmmm….Baklava.” – (Charlize Theron)     I love Baklava too, although I couldn’t identify which region in the world it might have come from, like Andy can!
• “They know who we are.  They know what we are.” –  Andy
• “To use women as shields is to be no man at all.” – Afghan woman
• “Everything happens for a reason.” –   Nicky      (Luca Marinelli)

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@TrinaBoice