3.5 stars. Rated R, for profanity and graphic violence
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.24.20
Immortality isn’t as cool as some folks likely assume.
Popular comic book writer Greg Rucka provocatively blended that premise with conventional action-hero thrills in the 2017 series The Old Guard, with artwork by Leandro Fernandez; the graphic novel immediately attracted Hollywood’s attention, with a well-cast Charlize Theron adding another notch to her re-invention as a bad-ass mercenary type.
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| Although Andy (Charlize Theron, center right) does her best to explain the abilities that she shares with the much younger Nile (KiKi Layne), the latter isn't interested in playing nice: a rather foolish attitude, while in a transport plane being flown by a Russian drug smuggler. |
Gina Prince-Bythewood was an unlikely but ultimately just-right choice as director, having previously helmed gentler fare such as Love & Basketball and The Secret Life of Bees. As a result, her approach here is much more character-driven than the soulless slugfests that distinguish most action thrillers. We care about these folks: far more than you’d expect, given the far-fetched premise. They’re well sculpted, and equally well played.
Prince-Bythewood, editor Terilyn A. Shropshire and their stunt/fight coordinators — Brycen Counts, Adam Kirley and Danny Hernandez — also choreograph some furious skirmishes.
The film — debuting on Netflix — is quite faithful to its origins; credit for that goes to Rucka, who wrote his own script adaptation. Fans of the original series will note that he made one significant change, as we slide into the action-laden climax; this new element significantly enhances the pathos of Theron’s performance.
It’s actually a shame that all previews — and media publicity — reveal the immortality angle, because that awareness spoils the jolt of surprise unknowing viewers otherwise would receive, when this detail is revealed midway through the first act.
Andy (Theron) heads a quartet of independent mercenaries who’ve devoted their lives to righting wrongs, saving innocents, executing war-mongers and so forth. They’ve always chosen their assignments carefully; they’re definitely “good guys,” even as they act as judge, jury and executioner.
The team includes Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), who liaises with entities looking to hire them; and Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), passionately devoted lovers. All four are impressively capable warriors, and no wonder; they’ve been around for a long time.
Joe and Nicky met while fighting on opposite sides during the Crusades; Booker was a French soldier during the Napoleonic era.
Andy — actually Andromache of Scythia — is thousands of years old.
They’re immortal, but not invulnerable; all possess regenerative healing abilities that rapidly close wounds, expel bullets and repair shredded organs. (That said, I can’t help wondering what would happen if one were drawn and quartered.) But they’re not superhuman; they can be shackled or trapped like anybody else.
Rucka doesn’t waste time explaining how or why this immortality occurs; it just strikes an individual at random. When it does, any existing others immediately sense the new arrival, and bring him/her into the fold. Call it Nature’s way of contributing to the battle between good and evil.
Andy and her comrades have been meticulously careful to operate below the radar, knowing full well how the world would react, were their presence and abilities to become public.
As the eldest by far, she’s tired. Theron grants Andy a forlorn and gloomy weariness; she has done everything, seen everything, experienced everything. She speaks all languages, and is familiar with all weapons: particularly a delightfully nasty ax-like blade with the lethal qualities of a Klingon bat’leth.
Mostly, though, she’s discouraged by what the world has become; for all their efforts, she doesn’t feel they’ve made a significant difference.
(Even early on, we know that isn’t true; they’re the ultimate agents of countless butterfly effects. But Andy’s despair over daily breaking news is easy to understand.)
They’re offered an assignment by former CIA agent Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), whom they apparently know from a previous encounter. This rings mild alarm bells in Andy’s mind; “We don’t do repeats,” she warns, always concerned about maintaining their anonymity. But the mission is too tempting: to rescue a group of kidnapped children in South Sudan.
Alas, that proves to be a ruse designed solely to monitor their abilities, thus exposing their immortality to rapacious pharmaceutical executive Steven Merrick (Harry Melling, who makes a marvelously smarmy villain). Smelling untold profits if he can exploit the DNA — and any other aspect of their tissue — Merrick orders Andy and her crew captured.
By any means.
Despite being on the run, the quartet has a fresh problem: the sudden awareness of a new “recruit” who needs shepherding into the flock. That’s Nile Freeman (KiKi Layne), a U.S. Marine serving in Afghanistan, who — to the consternation of her fellow soldiers — miraculously survives what initially seemed an obviously fatal wound.
Rucka thus grants us characters at both extremes: Andy and her friends, centuries (and more) into a lonely journey through eternity; and Niles, terrified by what has happened to her, hesitant to trust Andy — when they meet — and unwilling to abandon friends and family, even after acknowledging the wisdom of doing so.
Layne grants Nile sparkle, spunk and plenty of angry attitude: a wealth of visible emotion that Andy and the others long ago abandoned. Layne’s dynamic with Theron is intriguing, and it soon becomes clear that Line isn’t the only one being schooled; she’s also having a restorative impact on Andy’s jaded, exhausted bearing.
As mentioned above, there’s a lot of intriguing angst here; Rucka takes a thoughtfully serious look at the emotional and psychological impact of such an existence, were it actually to occur.
I also was enormously impressed by a key scene between Joe and Nicky, as they ignore the likely consequences during a perilous moment; Kenzari and Marinelli bring heartfelt emotion to an persuasively romantic declaration, and the result is unexpectedly powerful (and a warm riff on the “kiss in the face of certain death,” which is cliché in such films).
The always reliable Ejiofor deftly handles the complexities of Copley’s multi-layered personality. The man’s intentions are absolutely noble — which Ejiofor conveys, through speech and bearing — but his means are deplorable. Here again, Rucka explores another aspect of moral ambiguity.
Melling, on the other hand, makes Merrick a thoroughly unrepentant villain: a loathsome little weasel that we love to hate. No question: Big Pharma has become the current cinematic scoundrel of choice (which I love).
Van Veronica Ngo pops up in a brief but memorable role, with consequences that’ll forever imprint a ghastly memory in your brain.
Although Prince-Bythewood and Rucka bring this saga to a definite conclusion, a final brief scene points to an obvious sequel (which Theron has expressed interest in making).
The Old Guard is a solid action thriller with a lot on its mind. That said, it’s quite violent, and definitely not for the faint of heart.
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