This man is more to me than you can dream. -Joe
I know the quote doesn’t seem to do justice to open my writing about this movie, an epic 125 minutes of beautiful violence and delicate masculinism, but please bear with me.
Mankind may have one or two secrets it kept obscure for centuries.
The brief was straightforward. Old Guard is a movie about a small army of three immortal men and a woman in a rare recruiting process. A supernatural occurrence meets with today’s technology and pharmaceutical industry, involving lots of guns, violence, and blood.
In hindsight, it’s easy to like this movie for its contradiction. It’s manly yet the main characters are women; it involves very, very old superhumans yet the soundtrack is fresh, and it’s a woman-made movie.
But if I being nitpicky, I must admit plot holes are everywhere. It’s unclear what these people do, why they do that. It’s also painful to see Dudley Dursley becomes a mad, filthy rich, young pharmaceutical company CEO. I know some industry players are dirty but he was downright unethical and evil.
The first few scenes reminded me of Extraction meets Warrior Nun— another Netflix’s action —for its violence, badass characters, and rough air travel but this one hooked me until the end.
The movie’s main plot got us from the start to the end of the movie but its subplot went beyond and took our mind wandering.
There was Andy (Charlize Theron), the boss, a centuries-old leader of the pack. She hesitated to take another extraction job to save someone but Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts)— once a fighter alongside Napoleon — convinced her to do the job and reuniting her with Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) — enemies from the Crusade, turned lovers for millenials to come.
The job was an ambush, an attempt to capture the four and study their abilities.
During their attempt to flee and regroup to plan their retaliation, the gang had a shared dream about a new immortal, an American Marine, Nile (KiKi Layne).
Nile, the new recruit, was a welcoming addition to the group for the audience — for me — because everyone got to explain things to her.
Still, as soon as they gathered in a safe house, another ambush happened. Joe and Nicky got captured. In a moving van, Joe made a fuss about Nicky’s wellbeing. When a mercenary asked him whether he’s his boyfriend, he replied,
He’s the moon when I’m lost in darkness, and warmth when I’m shivering cold. And his kiss still thrills me even after a millennia. His heart overflows with a kindness which this world is not worthy of. -Joe
This movie is interesting and I recommend anyone who listens to watch this. Just enjoy the ride, enjoy Theron’s awesome performance while questioning your sexuality.
I know it’s kind of cheesy to take Joe’s monologue out of the movie but as I said before, the movie’s subplot got me wondering: if I have all the time, money, means, and power in the world, what would I search for? If I’m not afraid of God, what would I do? If I’m not afraid to get hurt and make mistakes, what choice would I make?
It’s easy to picture something and/or someone while questioning it, don’t you think? To that question, I’ll borrow the last part of Joe’s monologue.
I love this man beyond measure and reason; he is not my boyfriend. He’s all, and he’s more. -Joe
