The Old Guard (2020)

 

Rating: ⭐  

The Old Guard is yet another mindless action vehicle that Netflix seem to churn out on a regular basis. If  Netflix's earlier release this year, Extraction was something that you found exciting, then, you are in for a treat with The Old Guard. It follows the same basic laws of such movies, namely, get a big name to head the cast (in this case, Charlize Theron), have a main character that is basically invincible (in this case our "heroes" have immortality), have lots of gun fire and mindless killings from the start till finish, and a plot that makes no sense or logic. For me, it's sad to see established stars like Charlize Theron "acting" in such trash. It almost feels like an invalidation of whatever good movies she had ever done in her career before this.

Perhaps one might be a bit more forgiving here as afterall the source material for this is a comic book, and the team of immortal mercenaries that we have here can be classified under the "superhero" category which I guess absolve it from having a coherent plot or any resemblance of real life. The problem here is the film is presented in the style and manner of a "real life" type action movie rather than a typical "superhero" style. To solicit some form of value to the heroes, and justify their penchant for violence, we are given some sketchy background information about how these renegades were responsible for saving the lives of multiple important people who were late responsible for all sorts of live saving actions! Yeah .. right .. Meanwhile, there are no attempts at all to produce any details on the origins of our band of 4 vagabond misfit mercenaries. How or why or when they have their immortality is not explained. We are just expected to accept this, don't ask any questions and just move along ..  Being immortal also means that they can never die so that takes away any sense of wonder who will come out the victor in any fight. There is a case where one of the superheroes mysterious loses this power of self healing. Never explained. Just a cheap plot device to try unconvincingly to create a situation which elevates the danger for our heroes. 

At the end, the movie ends predictably by setting itself up for a sequel. It must think very highly of itself to assume that people would want to watch more of the same junk. Then again, I may be wrong, and we may indeed have a The Old Guard 2 if this one proves to be popular. That is not impossible given that this film has actually received some positive reviews from critics as well as audiences. At least the consolation for me is that I will know enough to give it a miss and not waste time with it.