The Old Guard (2020) Dir: Gina Prince-Bythewood

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I had two reasons for wanting to watching this Netflix Original fantasy action film, based on the successful graphic novel series by Greg Rucka, and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. The first of those being that my Dad recommended it to me, and the second being the arrival of a second film later in 2025. If this proved to be a good watch, then I'd have a new film to look forward to. Ratings have been very middling of this first one, which worried me a little bit, but did not dissuade me entirely - after all, I've watched some pretty awful films for the sake of writing reviews.

From an aesthetic point of view, I found this film to be awfully plain. It looked like a very generic action film, which was pretty disappointing considering its potential. I was also pretty underwhelmed by the soundtrack, which was dreadfully corny and ill-fitting. The action sequences were at least very slick, which I found to be the film's greatest strength, ultimately. It was cool to watch the fights play out.

I thought the story was fairly entertaining, although it definitely got a little silly at times. It kept me engaged, at least, so I can't complain too much. There was a whole load of exposition dumping towards the beginning of the film, which was all very clunky, but once the story got going, the writing got a lot easier to stomach. I ended up enjoying it a fair bit, even if the writing never quite reached the highest levels - it did enough.

Charlize Theron was a shrewd casting selection for the main role, as far as I was concerned. She has the experience, the star power, and the natural charisma to carry a film like this forward strongly. I thought she did that really well, for the most part. It wasn't a faultless performance, but it was more than enough for what the film needed.

Unfortunately, a lot of the secondary characters were pretty hollow, and were made to feel like unimportant side pieces to the main characters. The likes of Kiki Layne, Veronica Ngo, Matthias Schoenaerts, struggled the most to standout, albeit Ngo had almost no screentime, in her defence. Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli had some good chemistry, but didn't get to exhibit it nearly enough, instead being relegated to minor roles for the majority of the film.

The most interesting performances came from the men playing the two antagonistic characters of the film; Chiwetel Ejiofor and Harry Melling. I just felt that this pair gave their characters a little something extra that wasn't quite there with the other cast members. Again, I found myself wishing that they had more time on-screen, because they were so much more enjoyable to watch.

Overall, I'd say this was okay for what it was. It was unexceptional in just about every way, but it did at least have a few good bits dotted here and there. For the second film to be successful, at least as far as I'm concerned, the characters need a lot more fleshing out, especially if Netflix wants it's audience to buy into the story arcs of some of the secondary characters in the film. This first one may not have been the best film ever, but I can see the potential for its sequel to be a lot of fun.