Today’s “Sunday Streaming” entry is Netflix’s “The Old Guard”, a science-fiction/Fantasy/action movie that was stars Charlize Theron. As far as I can tell, this is a film about a bunch of immortal soldiers who fight global threats through the ages, kind of like the plot of “Highlander” if all the immortals from that movie teamed up to kick ass. I haven’t heard a LOT about this movie, other than the fact that it wasn’t that bad for a Netflix film, which kinda says a lot.
I went into this last week with “Project Power”. I totally get what Netflix is trying to do with these big-budget action movies with big stars… They use the draw of the stars to bring eyes to their platform. It makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint. However, they really need to be careful here. By half-assing these films, they are going to start hurting the long-term effectiveness of this strategy, especially once everyone is able to start going back to the theaters for new film experiences once the Coronavirus lockdowns end.
Anyway, I don’t want to speak too poorly of this one till I’ve seen it. Here is the trailer.
This movie isn’t bad. It’s a decent action film, with some well crafted set-pieces. There is a lot of this movie that is really fun to watch, and Charlize Theron might be one of the best female action stars out there, if only due to her physicality in action scenes. I remember a lot of people talking about how “Atomic Blonde” was unrealistic for having her being able to physically overpower the male antagonists. My take is that I am not really watching action movies for realism. She is fun to watch, so I am down with it.
In this movie, she place Andy, an immortal warrior who leads a team of immortals going around and trying to make the world a better place. She is enjoyable to watch in this. I mean… it’s not her best showing, but its a new movie in a year when there really aren’t any. Her action scenes are good, her dialogue scenes are passable. She does a bit more of the deep-voiced stoic routine than I think is necessary, but eh…
The rest of the cast isn’t bad, just largely unremarkable. Well, I take that back…. Chiwetel Ejiofor is in this, and while his role in the movie isn’t super impactful, he’s got a great screen presence. Everyone else really just fills the roles. None of them are offensively bad, but nothing to really write home about.
I don’t have a lot to say about this one. It’s fine, and its a new movie that you can watch to replace the missing summer movie season of 2020. I recommend it to anyone looking for some good action scenes, or enjoys Charlize Theron. It also teases a sequel, so that might be something to look forward to as well. I’d probably give this movie a B or a B-.
Ain't That Bad - Movie Blog 