The Old Guard: diversity in the super-hero genre

[magnetic_rose92]

The Old Guard is a Netflix original movie directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and written by comic book writer Greg Rucka. It follows a group of immortal mercenaries on a revenge mission after they're betrayed and their identities are at risk of being exposed.

Comments

[magnetic_rose92]

Also idk what happened that all my paragraphs became one big paragraph 😭😭 I’ll try to fix it.

[tilney]

I really liked it! I love the found family trope, and enjoyed their team dynamics. The villain was vile (those fucking hoodie suits, jeez) and I rooted for the team all the while. Plus Charlize is really leaning into those Atomic Blonde/Furiosa/Aeon Flux roles and I for one LOVE it.

[truth_and_facts]

It's what she deserves, we love it! She's a better action star than 80% of her male peers.

[alexlover14]

I watched this for Matthias (who I realise is now is the only straight(?) white guy in the group and although it was tropey and didn't bring much new to the table I did appreciate the diversity. I love Charlize moving full on into the action heroine role again as it's so satisfying watching women destroying dozens of men.

I'd love to see more of their backstories, especially the gay couple [Spoiler (click to open)]fighting against each other in the Crusades, if that's right? Like how on earth did they fall in love in that environment? I'm so intrigued. I'm also glad they didn't make Charlize and Matthias' characters lovers as that's so overdone (although I'm sure they have had sex in the past!)

There is so much more they could do, so I also hope for a sequel.

[mattxmatt]

Mte about Charlize and Matthias' characters.
I wish they had had bigger budget to show more flashbacks and make the movie more stylish and visually compelling.

[truth_and_facts]

For more back story you can check out t he original comics. It's really good. Not the biggest fan of the art style but I'll allow it lol.

[invisiblemonkey]

I liked it! The storyline was a bit basic but I was delighted by the world-building? I'm also immediately obsessed with the immortal warrior boyfriends, what an excellent concept.

[dinkerd]

The movie was fine, but I wish it had been a miniseries instead. I loved all of the lore and the flashback scenes, but there just wasn't enough time to develop and explore all of it. I would have loved to see more of Charlize's character roaming the earth alone, more of the witch trials, more of the relationship developing during/after the crusades, etc. It would have also allowed them to explore the theme of immortality more. Packaging all of these themes storylines as an action movie set in present day just didn't really work for me, even if that is also how it's done in the source material.

I do really appreciate your review though, OP! Some of the points you raised were the highlights of the movie for me.

Also I'm curious if Marwan, Matthias, and Charlize ever just spoke Dutch/Flemish/Afrikaans with each other on set.