sailing the fingers of the dragon

I was pleased to note this The Old Guard featurette was on YouTube; I saw it on Twitter earlier, but now I can save it for reference! There's some stuff in there that I don't think was in the comics (Nicky was a priest??), plus hints at some extra footage. I hope they release the deleted scenes. The lack of those is the one of the only complaints I have about Netflix films. Give us some dang extras!

Also I am feeling a bit smug that I guessed on the first try which old London pub the group were drinking in at the end of the film. Gotta love googlemaps and its plethora of user-generated photos.

The second volume of the comics concluded on Wednesday and has set up what I expect to be a remarkable third volume as well as a fascinating potential second film. Netflix emailed me today with a list of the top ten titles in Canada and the Old Guard was #1, so I am cautiously holding out hope that we will in fact get at least one more film. I particularly want to see how Greg adapts this second volume, since the film and the comics do differ in several places.

...I might need some new icons.

I have been gleefully anticipating the release of The Old Guard on Netflix. It's based on the comic written by Greg Rucka, and he wrote the screenplay as well, so it was already high on my list. THEN they cast Charlize Theron and I was pretty damn gone.

It came out on Friday and I solidly enjoyed it. The comics are planned as a three-volume set, and the second volume concludes this coming Wednesday; the producers of the film hope to be able to adapt the other two volumes as well, so I am Strongly Encouraging people to check it out! Some other reasons to support it:

• the director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, is the first Black woman to direct a comic-book action film;
• the editor, Terilyn A. Shropshire, is the first Black woman to edit a comic-book action film;
• Charlize Theron fights with a double-bladed axe;
• two queer main characters (one more whose queerness is subtextual but canon in vol.2 of the comics);
• they are immortal, so no gays get buried;
• KiKi Layne from If Beale Street Could Talk plays Nile, the newbie, and she is GREAT;
• Greg once described Andy (Theron's character) as analogous to Slappy Squirrel from Animaniacs; "the whole damn world needs to get off her lawn." This charms me.
• Did I mention I extremely want the sequel? I extremely want the sequel.
• The rest of the cast is also fantastically diverse in a way that comic-book films just aren't, because the Big Two suck. Rounding out the main cast: Matthias Schoenaerts; Marwan Kenzari; Luca Marinelli; Chiwetel Ejiofor. Let's make this sell.
• All those 'world-weary mentor meets charmingly naïve mentee' pairings that people love? Andy and Nile, man.
• The balance of tone in this film - the shifts from action to quiet interpersonal connection - are brilliantly handled.
• I want to learn to fight with a double-bladed axe now.

It is violent, so if you're extremely anti-blood it may not be for you, but the violence is definitely not the biggest part of the film. If you're looking for something to watch and you want to make me happy, give it a try! And come talk to me about it. Please and thanks. :D