The Old Guard

[emperor]

Third of the Hugo shortlist, and the best so far by a comfortable margin. The premise here is a small band of almost-immortal mercenaries; what they do with their time, what it's like being a new (and very old) immortal, and what happens when someone thinks they might be useful to Big Pharma...

This was more interesting and less just-endless-fight-scenes than I was expecting (though the fight scenes are very well done!), although it was still a fairly predictable plot (while Obbxre tvivat Naql na rzcgl tha was a twist we didn't spot coming, we both said "Zreevpx'f fgvyy va gur cragubhfr" when gur yvsg jnf frra tbvat qbja). Some of the character motivations around key plot points felt a bit flat, though. I'm not sure the plot as a whole entirely stands up to scrutiny, either...

I did like that all the characters are pretty competent (including the villains), and that most of them (the exception being Merrick) have complex motivations. I like that there's a central queer relationship that isn't just one aspect of the relevant characters. And the fight scenes are very well done :)

Comments

[mtbc]

I wonder if Merrick was miscast or just too cartoonishly written and I was surprised just quite how much advantage having lots of experience seemed to give over being considerably outnumbered but, while not amazingly original, much of it was plenty of fun and I'm glad we can expect a sequel.

[jack]

I really loved it, but felt like it deserved to be a series with a lot more dwelling on each character, and less worry about an overall plot

[kaberett]

I would definitely be interested to know which motivations you thought were dubious! This is a film I will get Very Intent about when discussing, so. ;)

[emperor]

It's been a while now, but. I think I was alluding to Booker's decision to betray the group; seemingly because he's fed up of being immortal and thinks Merrick might relieve him of this burden? That felt quite slight a reason to betray your friends and comrades of 100s of years.
[the whole "we have all this great tech but can't find Quynh; oh wait they show up at the end of the film" thing was a bit of a cheat too]