A small secret group of immortal mercenaries led by the warrior Andy (Charlize Theron) has fought for centuries to defend the mortals. The team is recruited for an emergency mission and it is discovered that its members are immortal. Now Andy and Nile (Kiki Layne), the newest member of the group, must help the team eliminate those who want to replicate their powers and gain from them by any means. Based on the comic book series signed by author Greg Rucka and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, Old Guard is a tough action movie that proves that being immortal is not as easy as it sounds.
The Old Guard will surely rise to the top of the Top 10 Romania on Netflix and the film really deserves to do so: the action with Charlize Theron in the lead role offers, in addition to the obligatory mix of special effects and “beats”, a relevant discussion about the passage of time, blasphemy, perseverance and the need for a purpose. Below is what we liked about the film released today on the platform.

With a well-managed and unencumbered script, that is, lost moments in explaining various aspects of the story, to be understood even by those at the bottom of the class, The Old Guard immediately gets to work. It only takes us a few minutes to understand that Theron’s character has a long history and is what we might call an immortal. And like her are her friends, Booker (Belgian Matthias Schoenaerts), Nicky (Italian Luca Marinelli) and Joe. The latter is played by the Tunisian-born Dutchman Marwan Kenzari, who you may remember from the recent Aladdin, where his carefully crafted muscles gave him a funny nickname “Hot Jafar”.

It takes a single scene (baclava!) To realize that the four have not only a long history together, but that they are also united by an extraordinary camaraderie. It’s something extremely engaging and believable in their interactions, one of the great pluses of the film.

The practical aspects of the immortality of the four conflict with the obsession of the villain (Harry Melling, much changed after playing his cousin Dudley in Harry Potter movies as a child), a big pharma tycoon who wants to use the regenerating powers of heroes to eradicate diseases. By the way, his aide-de-camp is played by the Romanian Anamaria Marinca, and the scene when she says, with eyes full of lust, “The Nobel Prize”, is one of the funniest in the whole film.

The Old Guard does not lack action at all, with a lot of armed confrontations, chases and hand-to-hand combat, but this is what we see in almost all genre films. What brings the new premiere on Friday is the engaging and relevant discussion about how the passage of time affects us, whether we are immortal or not. We are as exposed to blazing and eroding expectations and ideals as the heroes of the film, only their effects are more pronounced because the toxicity of time has acted for a longer period.

Here is one of the positive messages of the film, that a good deed is always preferable to inactivity, even in a world of chaos. Between exploded heads and hacked limbs, The Old Guard has time to discuss vulnerability and suffering, a very interesting discussion in the context of the body that refuses to die … Yes, the film is pulled back by a series of commonplaces and conventions specific to action, but it will definitely captivate you.