Yeah, we liked this. More, please. Lots more.
Yeah, I’ll watch the next one.
It was fine. Theron was great, as always. Plot was pretty by-the-numbers, and the bad guy was pretty cartoonist, as noted, but the fight scenes were good, dialogue and characters were solid. I’ll watch another, especially since we don’t need an ‘origin story’.
I liked the Hemsworth action movie a few months ago better. This was one a little too much by the numbers. That said, certainly watchable, Theron is awesome as always, and I’d tune in for a sequel.
Clearly a very memorable movie, that one, the title is right one the tip of my tongue :)
My expectations for Netflix original action movies are pretty low, and The Old Guard easily exceeded them. Probably the first one since Triple Frontier that I would have been ok paying to see in a movie theater. In particular, I liked that they really gave some thought to how people would behave in this world. Like the bit with the selfie in Marrakesh, Andy shooting Nile in the back and telling them matter of factly to get in the car, the witch trials in ye olde England, etc.
But still, every single plot point was utterly predictable, and I just can’t believe anybody thought that the villain was a good idea.
Both the main villain and Ejiofor were pretty lame characters, but I was amused that the villain’s HQ, or its ground level exterior anyway, was a law firm office I walk past whenever I cover a court case.
Overall it was fairly competent, cartoonish bad guys aside, but I have no desire to ever watch it again, or a sequel. I’d have been much more interested in a character study of Theron coming to terms with her mortality, personally.
I enjoyed it quite a bit. I think the sequel which will probably have Quinn (?) as a significant character in it should be fun also.
I really liked this part of it, too. I mean it borrows elements from all the movies you’d expect, like Highlander and Wolverine’s role in X-Men. But it also adds to the genre with its unique take on how immortals would execute firefights, for example.
I also didn’t like the villain. I think he’d have been better existing in a morally grey area rather than them turning the moustache twirling up to 11.
I would watch this if it were a series, though.
Felt very by-the-numbers. Couple of obligatory John Wick-style set pieces. Mehhhh.
Yeah, this was strictly okay. More or less what I expect out of a made for Netflix film. Could’ve used a top to bottom rewrite to -
- Overhaul the horrible bad guy
- Provide some actual motivation for two character about faces that came from nowhere
- Give me a bit more background on the characters without having to resort to bad wig and hat flashbacks or “Ha ha let’s do what we did in that mission one time see we have history”
The action scenes were great, though.
Joe and Nicky were excellently done; I got the sense of shared history and love between them. Like - write more of the dialogue like that.
Watchable, but not overly memorable. Most of the characters, sadly, don’t seem to have a lot going for them - and it would seem the plot never really fully taps into the premise. The only thing that kinda goes along those lines would be the clichéd “You’ll see all your loved ones die.” bit - the rest never really takes advantage of the literal history of the characters with the exception of Joe and Nicky. One basic question that immediately came to my mind: why would and did these people decide to become a force for good instead of using their immortality to kings/queens and conquer the world? More background would have been nice. The villain was super-flat and really had nothing interesting going for him. Action was servicable for sure though.
That said, it’s hard for me to pin down exactly why that is–the cameras used, the way everything is framed, the overall production value–but like many other Netflix movies, this one has a ‘tv feel’ to it which it couldn’t shake in the final act. That’s one thing Extraction managed to avoid.
Strange, I felt the exact opposite. I was bored to death by Extraction - thought it was so clear a B or C level production, cheesy as hell, etc. This wasn’t incredible, but certainly closer to an A-level production for me.
Enjoyed it last night and will watch the next one if they have it. But even so, it was a bit of a letdown. The action was good, but not nearly to the John Wick levels I’ve heard talked about. I did enjoy the look and ideas for the most part. Of the Old Guard, only Theron looked out of place. The three other dudes looked much more ‘real’. Hard to describe it. They weren’t very Hollywood looking. Theron is the grand queen of looking Hollywood to me. She can act and can look the part of a badass warrior (Furiosa), but here she always felt too clean and shiny compared to the others including the new Marine. The less said about the horrible Big Bad the better. He was some freshman comp level shit.
It really needed to breathe for as much as it brought to the table and only sorta nodded to. Lots of neat little background stuff was tossed out and ignored. I would think that if anything can be gleaned from dissecting them a whole lot could also be gotten from blood samples they left absolutely everywhere. Probably not as much as if you had the bodies, but it would come at a much lower cost. Or at least mention why such samples wouldn’t be tried first before going full Mad Scientist on them. Why was she so close to the newest immortal who’d been around a couple of hundred years and not the others? Why did the first immortal to die, die so soon when the others lived at least a few hundred years before they started worrying about maybe dying?
Still enjoyed it, but it too often felt undercooked.
I think that is a great idea for a sequel.
Overall very watchable but I had the nagging feeling that the technology has advanced too far. It’s starting to strain disbelief that immortals could use their immortality in such a blatant way and not have word get out. Even in just the extraction in Afghanistan you had a pilot who saw and heard enough to be a leak, 3 knocked out soldiers and a missing soldier in the middle of a base, and maybe a missing Marine vehicle (perhaps she brought her own). Then you have the CCTV and random cell phone footage of the final end of the villain and the others walking out to the car before speeding off.
I enjoyed it for what it was and would watch a sequel but just deleting a selfie and having a few safe houses set up didn’t seem like enough paranoia over being discovered.
Apparently this is now #1 on Netflix. My 15 year old watched it with her older siblings using Netflix Party and they all are excited for the sequel.
The returning immortal, can’t recall her name, do you think she is insane now and evil? She would make a good villain seeking revenge.
Seems likely. They’re pretty clearly setting up the next movie to be the main group vs Booker (though he may not realise he is being used against them).
Really? I guess that makes total sense, but I kinda figured Booker was toast considering what the new gal had said about feeling drowned gal and considering Booker was all alone with no backup to help him fend off drowned gal’s presumably horrific revenge.
You could write around that any number of ways. For example:
Drowned girl: I just want Andy
Booker: Hey, Andy kicked me out for basically nothing, I’m not going to protect her
Drowned girl: She abandoned me!
Booker: Yeah, she kinda bailed on me, too. Let’s team up and go get her.
Oh for sure. I don’t think my interpretation was any more accurate than the others. I just saw it my way upon initial viewing.
Quynh (I had to check IMDb, but the woman that was drowned) wouldn’t necessarily be out for revenge on anyone but Andy, right? Andy said at one point Nicky and Joe spent decades with her looking for Quynh (once Andy had escaped the same captors that drowned Quynh) before giving up, but I’m not even certain Quynh ever met those two, much less Booker who was a much later addition to the crew. Now Quynh may not be behaving rationally, and could certainly be a danger to anyone, but I don’t think revenge works as a motive for Quynh against anyone but Andy.