If one woman can be said to have reinvented the female-driven action film of the last several years, it’s unquestionably Charlize Theron. Since her breathtaking turn in Mad Max: Fury Road five years ago, that stoic determined unbreakable authority has become her signature, showing up in movies like The Fate of the Furious and Kubo and the Two Strings, as well as those more consciously chasing Furiosa’s coattails like Atomic Blonde and most recently The Old Guard. Setting aside the fact that the state of the industry currently leaves her about the only female action movie star, it is a role that has served her quite well and in which she continues to hone a captivating screen presence.
This paired with an incredibly interesting premise is what often keeps The Old Guard from sinking into the doldrums of mediocrity -which it teeters on the edge of at multiple points. Though it really has no excuse for coming close. It’s based on a comic book by Greg Rucka about a small team of secret immortal soldiers, periodically hired for mercenary missions, and the threat of them being exposed and experimented on by an unethical pharmaceutical company. Theron plays Andy, their leader, once a Scythian warrior, armed with a shrewd cynicism and an ancient battle-axe. Her three companions are played by Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, and Luca Marinelli.
Rucka’s own screenplay does perhaps too good a job playing down this fact of their nature at the start of the movie, which thrusts you into the world without context, emphasizing the atmosphere of a nondescript espionage film, complete with an obligatory geopolitical setting in the Middle East and a formula special assignment involving a kidnapping. It’s more than a little bland. And then everything changes in a single brutally violent encounter that sees our four protagonists vividly pulverized -only for them to get back up, their wounds regenerated and take down an entire attack squad. It’s an excellently shot and choreographed sequence, from the apparent deaths to the subsequent fight, each character with their own weapons and combat skills, and it sets the stage for a series of superb action scenes to come.
The film is directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, a filmmaker with no prior experience in the action genre. However she’s either a quick learner or an extremely competent supervisor of her fight coordinators, because her action sequences are very well-staged and clearly edited. There’s not a lot of versatility to them, but plenty of rawness, the invincibility of the titular characters in the face of whatever injury may come their way yields some very exhilarating results, not to mention a lot of instances of characters just taking lethal blows to only minor annoyance.
But to its’ detriment, the film seems more interested in its concept as pertaining to these action sequences than as a provocative exploration of such a cursed existence. Though in fairness, it’s largely the choice of focus and genre of the movie that constrains it in this regard; it’s ideas much better suited for a larger scope and a more character driven story. The idea of a band of immortals living through the centuries and effecting history for the better, it puts one in mind of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, or even Cloud Atlas. And yet this isn’t conveyed in The Old Guard, save for a small sequence of flashbacks detailing a personal trauma of Andy’s and another immortal meant to set up a sequel. The necessary modernity of the film negates the grandness of the Old Guards’ story, it’s left only for the actors to relate that weight of centuries -and they do a pretty good job of it, but it’s still underwhelming. The concept has every potential to penetrate to the core of human nature and dissect it across ages as our protagonists observe and experience it in all its colours. Instead we have a comment about people “only getting worse” and a banal plot that pits this team against a corporation run by a stock evil millennial entrepreneur played by Harry Melling (whose continual transformation into an interesting character actor remains nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable). And caught up in this Big Pharma scheme is a sadly wasted Chiwetel Ejiofor.
However where the modern setting and style is earned is in the other main thrust of the narrative. KiKi Layne plays a U.S. Marine who discovers her own immortality after surviving a slit throat, is tracked down by the others, reluctantly recruited, and becomes the primary audience surrogate as she learns about immortality, comes to accept it, and is mentored by Andy. Layne is a very good actress, as she demonstrated in If Beale Street Could Talk, and her journey in this film is consistently engaging, quite often making up for the duller plot beats. She and Theron have a decent chemistry, Theron naturally taking to the teacher role. And it can’t be understated that the older actress too makes a lot of the film better for her performance. We don’t actually learn a whole lot about Andy, but we do feel like we know her by the end, and that’s something.
The Old Guard wants to become a franchise. It leaves a number of threads open to be picked up on, though I don’t know how much interest it can generate for a sequel. If nothing else it’s being talked about for one of the most affectionate gay romance scenes in recent cinema history (Kenzari and Marinelli’s characters are lovers). I’ll admit I’m curious, if for no other reason than the premise being again very strong. I don’t think the film completely succeeds at fitting its square peg in a round hole, but it makes a valiant effort, dotted with enough exciting action scenes and performances and the hints of good speculative drama to not write off completely. Though if it is the best comic book film of 2020, it’s only because of the lack of competition.
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