Director Gina Prince-Bythewoods adaptation of Image Comics The Old Guard, by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernndez, is a movie that asks you to really reflect on what it is about superheroes and their stories that keeps us coming back. Rather than fully trying to reinvent the comic book movie, The Old Guard instead takes hallmarks of the genre and uses them to explore the ruminative, emotional elements of the hard-boiled heroic archetype.

The movies narrative beatsmay ring familiar to you. After spending multiple lifetimes ridding the world of evil, a group of immortal warriors finds themselves confronted with the greatest threat to their existence: being exposed. As the oldest member of the titular Old Guard, Andromache Andy of Scythia (Charlize Theron) acts as the groups leader. Their mission, as it were, is to fight evil currently by taking out human traffickers and drug runners who have no qualms about hurting innocent people. But after more than 1,000 years of fighting the good fight, Andys grown weary of the world and its bottomless well of human suffering. Just as she hits something of an emotional low when it becomes clear that someone has designs on capturing her and her fellow immortals, the group as a whole is shocked when they realise that a new person of their kind has just been awoken, something that portends a major shift in their destinies.

In stark contrast to Andy and the other immortals whove long since lost most of their emotional connections to anyone outside their group, Nile Freeman (Kiki Layne), a young Marine deployed in Afghanistan, loves everything about her relatively mundane life... right up until she dies in the line of duty, before inexplicably coming back to life in the infirmary shortly after. For different reasons, Andy and Nile are both alarmed to learn that theyre about to become important parts of one anothers lives, and that bond is something that The Old Guard consistently centres as it pulls you into its action-thriller plot that feels surprisingly fresh compared to other comic book movies.

Once shes collected her, Andy introduces Nile to her new family Yusuf Joe Al-Kaysanioe (Aladdins Marwan Kenzari), Nicolo Nicky di Genova (Luca Marinelli), and Sebastian Booker le Livre (Matthias Schoenaerts). The film thenquickly telegraphs the broad strokes of its story, which follows the squad as they try to take down Steven Merrick (Harry Potters Harry Melling), the villainous pharma bro whos hunting them with plans of turning them into lab rats, and former CIA agent James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) whos also keen on studying their genetic makeup but perhaps for slightly different reasons.

Though Nile cant deny that the healing factor she shares with the Old Guard makes her more than a baseline human, she struggles with the idea of leaving her life behind simply because the other immortals have. The psychic connection they share with one another makes it impossible for them to believe that they arent meant to be together, but beyond that, The Old Guard is careful to steer clear of spelling out what, if any, higher power gave them their abilities and wove their fates together.

Charlize Theron (Andy), Luca Marinelli (Nicky), Matthias Schoenaerts (Booker), Marwan Kenzari (Joe). (Photo: Aimee Spinks/Netflix)

In subtle ways, The Old Guard depicts how, absent of any sort of divine directive, all of the immortals have come to believe chiefly in their collective sense of justice and the different things that make each of them feel truly alive. Theron brings a world-weariness to her performance that makes you understand why Andys turned to drink and how her crusade wore her down over the millennia (they never do get around to saying how old she really is). As was the case in the comics, Nicky and Joe who were once enemiesfind sanctuary in one another as the groups resident pair of lovers whose relationship is put front and centre as a testament to how the immortals feelings have shifted over time. The film spends a noticeable amount of time highlighting these aspects of its characters because the nuances to their humanity are ultimately whatit wants you to recognise as what makes them heroic.

Prince-Bythewoods approach to action emphasises that while the Old Guards immortality gives them a decided combat advantage against their opponents, what really makes them lethal are their collective experiences and understanding of how to work as a cohesive unit. The Old Guards fight scenes are often brutal as people get shot in the head at point-blank range and axes are lodged into guts, but every battle is defined by a distinct sort of elegance that speaks to the teams prowess on the battlefield.

Just as it allbegins to build towards a somewhat predictable dramatic climax, the movie takes a moment to make you think about what it is that a superhero does when they get involved in a situation. While a heros intention might be to protect the lives of innocent people from those who could hurt them, its almost inevitable that others are going to be hurt or murdered in the process, something that superhero films tend to gloss over in service of larger-than-life action sequences. The Old Guarddoesnt shy away from the grim realities of Andy and the teams important, difficult work, and figuring out how she feels about the situation is part of Niles journey that the film invites the viewer to follow along with.

Aside from a few pacing issues in its third act, The Old Guard flows with a briskness that suits the storys overall straightforwardness which at times makes the movies twists feel somewhat predictable. But between a solid first outing and more than enough foreshadowing for future instalments set in this world, The Old Guard easilyholds its own in the increasingly crowded market of cape films that are trying to find something novel to say within the confines of the genre.

The Old Guard is now streaming on Netflix.

Featured image: Netflix

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The Old Guard Turns Immortality Into Something Worth Living For - Gizmodo UK