Netflix Review: THE OLD GUARD - Die Hardest

It's difficult not to think of Russell Mulcahy's HIGHLANDER when watching the new Netflix action film THE OLD GUARD. The story revolving around a group of immortal warriors having lived through centuries, which was a pretty original concept way back in 1986, can of course sound a bit familiar by now.

But whereas Mulcahy's film, as entertaining and stylish as it was, dealt with the inherent contradiction of the gift and curse of immortality with a rather immature contest of champions where ultimately; ''there can be only one'', THE OLD GUARD tries very hard between its exciting action sequences to have a serious reflection on this duality, which gives a bit of heart and relevance to the fire and fury.

Man has always been fascinated, for obvious reasons, by immortality, and one of the earliest record of a written saga in History, the Gilgamesh story (roughly 2300 years B.C.) features in fact an immortal character, Uta-Napishtim (who was the Babylonian prototype for the Bible's Noah) whom Gilgamesh sought to gain the gift of immortality. (Spoiler: He didn't get it).

The Old Guard; Joe (Marwan Kenzari), Booker (Matthias Schoenaert), Andy (Charlize Theron), Nicky (Luca Marinelli) and Nile (Kiki Layne)

The film follows Andromache (played with grumpy world-weariness by Charlize Theron) who is the elder of a small group of Immortal mercenaries who get involved in conflicts in the hope of improving the fate of a world  that just won't learn from its mistake and get better. They are tracked down by a misguided agent (Chiwetel Ejiofor, who knows a thing or two about playing morally tortured characters) working for a ruthless pharma bro (Harry Melling) wanting to profit from the secret lying deep inside the bodies of the Immortal Warriors. Meanwhile, a young soldier (played by Kiki Layne) comes back to life mysteriously after having been killed in action.

Written by Greg Rucka, based on his own 2017 comic book series of the same name illustrated by Leandro Fernandez, THE OLD GUARD presents a very convincing argument to let comic book writers write their own screenplays. The film is very close to the series, right down to some memorable dialogues, including this surprisingly tender moment between Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), two lovers who found themselves while trying to kill each other during the Crusades, replying to a taunt by a sneering captor calling them ''boyfriends''.

Moments like these, or Booker's tale of how his family turned against him when they realized his ''gift'' , are what set the film apart as an action film, and probably what attracted a director who up to that point had dealt more with dramas like LOVE AND BASKETBALL and THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES. Despite her inexperience with action, Gina Prince-Bythewood clearly demonstrates her ability to handle it in spades. She ''wanted to make it feel completely grounded and real, despite the fantastical conceit'', a promise she keeps overall pretty well, although there are some elements, like the grotesquely evil Pharma Bro, that may feel not quite realistic. Then again, we have a film that deals with a 6700 year old warrior, so I guess I can make an extra leap of faith. There are a couple of twists with some characters that seem a bit contrived and forced, and in the case of the character of Copley, seems to serve solely to set up the dynamics of a franchise. But overall, these are menial gripes I have with an otherwise rather solid film.

Director Gina Prince-Bythewood flanked by the youngest and oldest immortals in THE OLD GUARD; Kiki Layne and Charlize Theron.

The other aspect that makes the film resonate with the viewer, apart from the deep desire that we may have to live forever, is that ''the characters were searching for their purpose. And I feel like that is something as an artist and a person absolutely at different times in my life have had been searching for'', says the director. In a certain way, there is a revelatory moment in the film, absent from the first comic book series that serves as the basis for the plot, which beautifully offers those immortals with that sense of purpose. Something they felt they had to do, but were unaware why up to that point.

There are plot points in the film that doesn't appear in the books, including a major twist regarding Andy, which implies that a sequel may not follow as religiously the plot of the second volume of the comic book series, The film does introduce in its last sequence, and in a grueling flashback, the main antagonist of volume two of the comic series, hinting at the direction a sequel may take. The name is different (Noriko in the comics instead of Qhyn in the film) but she suffers the cruelest fate this side of Prometheus having his liver eaten by a vulture only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day...and the next...The flashback scene for Qhyn's fate in the film is infinitely more potent than the one for her graphic novel counterpart.

World-weary and ass-kicking, Charlize Theron as Andy.

We may soon be up to our ears in immortal warriors in the movies, between the potential sequel, and a HIGHLANDER reboot under the auspices of JOHN WICK director Chad Stahelski (we salivate just thinking of how crazy that will be). If the sequel is only half as good as this, we'd still be getting our money's worth.