SUMMER TV
Shows and films worth watching while you're stuck inside. |
First things first.
As a straight-up action film, “The Old Guard” — the cinematic realization of writer Greg Rucka and illustrator Leandro Fernandez’s graphic novel — leaves something to be desired. Director Gina Prince-Blythewood (best known for such smaller dramas as “The Secret Life of Bees,” “Behind the Lights” and “Love and Basketball”) approaches her heavily choreographed money shots with a sense of finesse that robs them of their punch.
As a story, “The Old Guard” — in which a group of fatigued immortals battles evil on behalf of a humanity that has remained blissfully unaware of its existence for centuries — has a distinct “X-Men” vibe. And since this is sort of an origin story, it’s no shock to learn that the door is left wide open for a franchise that could last as long as an immortal, in other words, forever.
Yet there’s something affecting about “The Old Guard” and its story of a group of tired, unacknowledged superhero soldiers going through the motions of saving humankind with an increasing level of frustration and quiet anxiety. Who can’t relate to that these days?
Suffering the most is Charlize Theron’s Andromache of Scythia (you can call her Andy), the leader and the oldest of this troubled band. She wants to walk away from her job completely.
As the movie begins, she has been off the grid for some time. The band of brothers in her squad — Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts, “The Mustang”) as well as Joe (Merwan Kanjari, “Aladdin”) and his life partner, Nicky (Luca Maranelli), who met centuries ago trying to kill each other in battle — are glad to have her back as she has been lured out of isolation by an old associate, Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”). He’s an ex-CIA agent looking for a group of secret, ninjalike assassins to rescue a group of Sudanese schoolchildren abducted by a shadowy terrorist group. Who better than Andy and crew?
Meanwhile, everyone in Andy’s gang is having strange dreams of an American soldier, Nile (KiKi Layne, “If Beale Street Could Talk”), fatally wounded in Afghanistan — but, strangely, not only remaining alive but her wounds miraculously heal almost instantaneously. This can only mean one thing: After centuries of having
no new candidates for membership, there’s now another immortal out there. They need to get to her before the government turns her into a human lab rat.
Also out there is Merrick (Harry Melling from the “Harry Potter” movies), a Mark Zuckerberg-like tech wunderkind and corporate titan who has become aware of the immortals’ existence and is determined to capture them and find out what makes them tick.
Theron, who has had experience playing take-charge action figures before in “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Atomic Blonde,” brings a weary grace to the role of Andy, while Layne proves to be compelling as a young woman caught up in something she doesn’t understand. It’s thanks to them and Schoenaerts that “The Old Guard” is better than it might have been.
“The Old Guard” may not offer anything new but its recycled heroics still provide a few intermittent thrills.