Directed by: Gina Prince-BythewoodStarring: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Harry MellingAvailable on NetflixRated R, 125 minutes

The war in Afghanistan is already the longest military conflict in American history, but human memories are short, and its hard to comprehend 19 years of continuous war. Halfway through The Old Guard, an action thriller with a supernatural twist, whose two hours are otherwise full of gunfights and fistfights and swordfights and double-crosses and for-the-greater-good clichs, a young woman quietly puts the wars terrible longevity into focus. The young woman, Nile, explains that her father was killed in action when she was 11; she herself is now a U.S. Marine, fighting in the same war.

Charlize Theron and KiKiLayne star in The Old Guard. (Courtesy photo)

However, she wont be killed in action; as she has just discovered, shes immortal. The Old Guard is a literal title, referring to a band of immortal supersoldiers, some of whom are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Led by Andy (Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road), the groups existence is a perfect secret, their deeds throughout history, from the Crusades to the Civil War, going without notice. This is by design; in previous eras, members of their ranks have been accused of witchcraft and tortured to insanity, so while their lonely way of life is hard, its better than the alternative.

The biggest threat facing the Old Guard these days comes in the form of Big Pharma, specifically a twitchy young CEO, Steven Merrick (Harry Melling, Harry Potter). Helped by a former CIA agent, Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Children of Men), Merrick sends paramilitary squads to ensnare the immortals, hoping to experiment on their bodies and maybe make a few cool billions by synthesizing their genetic material. Sensing the danger theyre in, Andy urges the group to lie low.

Then Nile (KiKi Layne, If Beale Street Could Talk) comes along. New to immortality and unable to comprehend her situation, Nile has questions, but the answers she needs are answers Andy cant give her. When she asks why this small group has been granted immortality, the others cant say with any certainty. When they plot revenge on Copley, Nile stops to ask why others have to die. The next youngest member of the group is over two hundred years old; with a fresh young face in their ranks, the Old Guard is forced, for the first time in centuries, to reckon with the unique advantage they have over mortals.

These moral and philosophical questions arent uninteresting, but what impact these questions have is flattened and diluted by the scripts constant stream of bland dialogue. Are you praying? God doesnt exist, Andy scoffs at Nile on the same day theyve met; This is about science, not profits, Copley pleads impotently when Merrick reveals his true intentions; We dont have all the answers, but we do have purpose, Andy philosophizes in a rambling monologue. The Old Guard is full of lines like these, lines meant to evoke simultaneously the gravitas of superhero movies and the conviction of a political speech. But with understated performances from nearly every member of the cast, these musings, offered in the movies quieter scenes, are unconvincing.

Luckily, quiet scenes are relatively rare; this is an action movie, after all, and a well-designed one at that. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) crafts blistering fight scenes that show off a wide variety of fighting styles, developing characters through wordless choreography. Action movies with high body counts often make us roll our eyes at the absurd scale of their carnage, but The Old Guard homes in on the act of killing, reminding us that death is deeply personal.

What makes The Old Guard linger, though, is the subtle parallel it draws between history and the zeitgeist of this fraught moment in time. Despite its dull dialogue, the movie still articulates an analogy between the eternal violence that haunts Andy and the violence Nile has known throughout her much shorter life. There are historical patterns, the waves that rise and fall over centuries, and then there are the patterns we observe within the smaller span of our lifetimes. Nile may have only ever known wartime, but she still balks when Andy warns her of everlasting cycles of violence. The Old Guard is a violent movie in the tradition of other violent movies, but it challenges us to imagine what it would take to break out of our old habits.

Danny Eisenberg grew up in Harvard and has been reviewing movies for the Harvard Press since 2010. He lives and works in Denver, Colorado.

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Movie Review: 'The Old Guard' | The Harvard Press | Features | Feature Articles - Harvard Press