Review of The Old Guard (2020) by Goo4You — 23 Jul 2020

I'll be upfront: I've never read the source material. I didn't even know it was based on something, so I can't really speak to how faithful this movie was to it or not, and I'm not going to try to. What I will say is that it was one of the most generic, formulaic things I've seen Netflix produce, and it boring to boot.

With most creative things, there's the touch of style that gives away who/what made it. Writers have their little quirts, directors have their little touches. The Old Guard stunk with every generic Netflix Original choice imaginable. The cinematography is the same run-of-the-mill style Nexflix employs and all the shaky cam/sped up combat your stomach could handle. The visual rending looks like every other thing they've invested in, the score sounded like the scraps leftover from other Netflix projects, and the script is so generic I was mouthing cliched lines moments before they delivered them.

I turned it off after about 20 minutes because there was no way I was committing to a show about this, and then I noticed it was a movie and gritted my teeth and continued on. I wish it didn't was that time.

Still, it's not something so bad you avoid, but it isn't something you're raring up to enjoy. You've seen this story before: it was called Highlander, and this didn't even get that right!

It's generic, it's borning, there are better things to watch.