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Author Topic: The Old Guard (Netflix)  (Read 5147 times)
Surlyboi
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on: July 18, 2020, 09:23:42 PM

Based on the comic series, Charlize Theron is the leader of a group of mercenaries that gets sent on a mission into South Sudan to rescue some kids and things go sideways from there.

I don't want to spoil any of it for those that haven't read the comics, but this is a pretty decent little flick. The action sequences are top notch.

Tuned in, immediately get to watch cringey Ubisoft talking head offering her deepest sympathies to the families impacted by the Orlando shooting while flanked by a man in a giraffe suit and some sort of "horrifically garish neon costumes through the ages" exhibit or something.  We need to stop this fucking planet right now and sort some shit out. -Kail
Threash
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Reply #1 on: July 19, 2020, 08:05:57 AM

The action sequences are top notch.

I think like how Marvel setting the standard for super hero movies made some movies that would have been perfectly fine before the MCU kinda "meh" today John wick did the same for shooty action movies. The action sequences would have been top notch before John Wick, now they are just ok. And when that's pretty much all you got you end up with a generic forgettable action movie. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't think it was all that great either.

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Khaldun
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Reply #2 on: July 19, 2020, 09:59:31 AM

I thought it was pretty mediocre. Good action sequences, appealing characters, much appreciated character diversity, wretchedly predictable plot. (I hadn't read the comics.) My daughter and I called every single plot point in advance after the first twenty minutes, including what Owiofor's ultimate role would be at the end and what the deal with Booker was going to be. If they make a sequel or a series, they need to do some much smarter world-building--I dunno if Rucka does that better in the comic. For supposedly savvy immortal warriors who are well aware of the horrible dangers an immortal might face if people knew their secret, they're pretty dumb, partly because the plot required them to be.
Surlyboi
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Reply #3 on: July 19, 2020, 06:10:04 PM

I liked the action sequences because they were Wick-esque. (Yeah, I’m making that a thing now.) as for the predictability, maybe my having read the comics left me expecting is everything. I still dug it.

Tuned in, immediately get to watch cringey Ubisoft talking head offering her deepest sympathies to the families impacted by the Orlando shooting while flanked by a man in a giraffe suit and some sort of "horrifically garish neon costumes through the ages" exhibit or something.  We need to stop this fucking planet right now and sort some shit out. -Kail
Tale
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Reply #4 on: July 19, 2020, 06:24:14 PM

Charlize Theron's character was awesome and I had a good time. Netflix is making mostly horseshit at the moment and I much prefer other streaming services, but this was okay.
Khaldun
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Reply #5 on: July 19, 2020, 07:49:18 PM

Reading about the comic, it looks like Theron's character is the one who loses the most in the transition to screen, oddly enough--looks like you get a lot more background on her in the comic.

Doesn't sound like the world-building is all that much richer, exactly. I really expect immortals who have learned the hard way what the price of exposure actually is to be smarter and more secretive than the characters we see in the film, and to have more clever ideas about using their military skills to do good--or to be more "fuck it, let's fight, that's still fun". Or something more clever and worked-out than what was up on screen.

It would be more interesting too if they became vulnerable to an unscrupulous pharma bro who feels like he walked out of Season 2 or so of the new Doctor Who (he's a Russel T. Davies bad guy to the nth degree) because *they* wanted answers about how their immortality works and thought maybe the science had come along enough that they might get those answers. Rather than "oh whoops we walked into a trap" etc
IainC
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Reply #6 on: July 19, 2020, 07:53:32 PM

I watched this about a week ago, it was fun and well made. The action sequences were great if you like hypercompetent swords-people vs gun-wielding mooks porn. The team was invincible until the plot required them to be dumb, then they were appropriately dumb until they needed to be invincible again. That kind of irked me, there wasn't really a good explanation for why they all got fucked except that the plot demanded it so it happened.

All of the acting was great and the premise was interesting. I thought it was a pilot for a new series so I got a bit confused as we entered hour two without an end in sight.

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schild
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Reply #7 on: July 19, 2020, 11:59:07 PM

i just stopped this to pass out for the night

but tell you what, the church scene in kingsman really redefined what "cool" is in a gunfight and old guard fucking ran with it
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Reply #8 on: July 20, 2020, 01:16:38 PM

finished it

b-
DevilsAdvocate25
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Reply #9 on: July 20, 2020, 02:13:27 PM

I liked it. The best part was the speech about why he was so much more than just a boyfriend. I wish they would have shown the subsequent action, though, not just the aftermath.
Threash
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Reply #10 on: July 20, 2020, 02:27:13 PM

I liked it. The best part was the speech about why he was so much more than just a boyfriend. I wish they would have shown the subsequent action, though, not just the aftermath.

That was a great moment.

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Khaldun
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Reply #11 on: July 20, 2020, 03:43:51 PM

Reading up on this, apparently Greg Rucka made that a contractual requirement--that any film or movie version had to feature that dialogue in whole, no edits. So plus one to him.
Abagadro
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Reply #12 on: July 20, 2020, 10:12:35 PM

Enjoyable enough. Can hear the pitch: John Wick but they are Highlanders.

EDIT: I also watched Extraction for a Netflix double feature tonight. No thread on it (not really worth it) but it is a decent shoot-em-up as well.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2020, 12:40:50 AM by Abagadro »

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IainC
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Reply #13 on: July 21, 2020, 05:01:54 AM

EDIT: I also watched Extraction for a Netflix double feature tonight. No thread on it (not really worth it) but it is a decent shoot-em-up as well.

It's super fucking orange though. They shot a bunch of it in Bangkok (specifically the Yaowarat Road area of Chinatown), so it was weird seeing the extremely strong filter on it.


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Threash
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Reply #14 on: July 21, 2020, 07:23:20 AM

I thought orange meant Mexico.

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Phildo
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Reply #15 on: July 21, 2020, 07:49:39 AM

Any place that's "dusty", so also the Middle East, Afghanistan, India, etc.
Abagadro
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Reply #16 on: July 21, 2020, 06:04:03 PM

It's only worth going out of the way to see it for the 11-minute pseudo-one-take sequence.  It's somewhat derivative of the ones in Children of Men, but still pretty impressive because it does some stuff that even tops those two sequences (I'm sure with a lot more available computing power now days).

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

-H.L. Mencken
Hawkbit
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Reply #17 on: July 23, 2020, 12:02:30 PM

This was fine for an action flick I suppose. It spent too much time setting the audience up for a series that likely won't get made. Feels like it would have been done better as an eight episode arc.
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