I can’t stress how much I enjoyed The Old Guard. A group of immortals who have been around for varying lengths of time (several thousand to a couple hundred years) use their badassery to fight for what they feel is morally right. The level of death these people can unleash is crazy high, and none of them are impacted much at all by the lives they take. Since they only do jobs they feel are right, I guess there’s no reason to be torn up by the people who die.

One of my favorite elements of the movie is the way that the immortality allows fight scenes to be constructed. The good guys can get shot, fall, ‘die’, get back up, and then continue fighting so the fights are really entertaining. But immortality doesn’t mean immune to pain, so there’s still a “let’s not get shot, please” vibe to the whole thing. At one point one of their intestines are on the outside, and it appears to be very uncomfy.

There’s also an epic love story that is quite possibly my favorite movie love story ever. Imagine spending hundreds of years with the love of your life. I’m down. I don’t want to say too much about this, because it’s so dang delightful everyone should go in to it without knowing details. I’ll just say that it’s amazing and I’m a huge fan.

I don’t know if this is due to the director, or the actors, or screenwriter, but The Old Guard is full of little touches that make the relationships in the movie so much more real. There are significant glances, winks, nods, head tilts, touches, and on and on. I think a lot of them could be missed, and I’m sure I’ll catch more next time I watch it, but it’s not something you see in shoot ’em up action movies.

Something else that I love but don’t want spoil for people is the search for the “why” of their immortality.

On top of all the awesomeness above, this movie is super inclusive and diverse. If you’re looking for a movie directed by a woman, or a black woman, Gina Prince-Blythewood is here for you. You want a group of mercenary types headed by a woman? Got it. Would you like to see a bit of queerness in your action movies? Take it. Black characters who aren’t one dimensional and survive to the end of the move? Yep, the movie has that too.

Just watch it. It’s amazing. Ten out of 10.

Sarah

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