The Old Guard
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Year Released: 2020
Rating: 1.5
Four "immortal" (quotation marks necessary) ancient warriors living in modern times - led by Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron), the oldest - find out (telepathically) that a Marine (KiKi Layne) was "killed" in Afghanistan and came back from the dead so they recruit her for their squad - elsewhere, egotistical scientist Steven Merrick (Harry Melling) heard about their inability to perish and wants to test and torture them. The action scenes pop and Charlize is back in Atomic Blonde form, but the script is bargain-basement (it's based on a graphic novel, which tend to be hit-or-miss): it makes many a dumb decision just to move the story forward and it changes its own rules midway through (it turns out they can die! huh!) just to make sure there's something at risk. Even the subtext - that living for centuries and seeing nothing but death and sickness can take its toll on a person - is a rather trite philosophical point.