Throughout her career Charlize Theron has taken on a variety of genres but my favorite is seeing her in action in flicks like Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde. Now she is stepping back into the action genre once again with The Old Guard based on the acclaimed graphic novel from Greg Rucka co-starring KiKi Layne, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Harry Melling, Van Veronica Ngo, with Matthias Schoenaerts and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

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The Old Guard follows a covert group of tight-knit mercenaries with a mysterious inability to die that have fought to protect the mortal world for centuries led by a warrior named Andy. But when the team is recruited to take on an emergency mission and their extraordinary abilities are suddenly exposed, it’s up to Andy and Nile, the newest soldier to join their ranks, to help the group eliminate the threat of those who seek to replicate and monetize their power by any means necessary.

 

I haven’t read the comic this is based on so outside of the trailer new very little about this flick. Love the idea, but was concerned as I had read some reviews saying the film didn’t work all that well or was dull and I could not disagree more. Sure there are pacing issues here and there, but as a whole I really enjoyed this movie. I love that Theron has had a second chance surge in the action genre and continues to knock it out of the park. This film keeps things pretty simple in regards to the story with a few twists and turns, but mostly pretty straight forward. The story is a great concept that we have seen similar versions before, but here takes it in its own direction to success.

 

There is a tone of great action that blends, martial arts, gun play, swords and even an axe. This is the strongest success to the film as it really works well and seems to get bigger with each sequence. The choreography and execution is top notch and helps to elevate this film to something bigger than it might have been otherwise. The pacing of the story is where it struggles at times. It limps along in a few places that could make you check out since more often than not you just came off of a bad ass action sequence. Thankfully for me it always found its way back in time to keep it moving and get back to the action.

 

The film is clearly set up for future installments and I hope they take this concept and really streamline it better and go all in should it happen. This might not have worked as well as a big screen release, but as a Netflix flick it delivers everything I wanted and hope to get to see more of these immortals in the future.