“The Old Guard” could just as well have been called “The New Blood,” since that’s what it tries to pump into the weary superhero genre, with a reasonable degree of success and quite a lot of, well, blood.
With the familiar movie-studio franchises in lockdown, Netflix has the opportunity to introduce a new squad of specially empowered warriors
The fighters — led by the fearless, furious Andy — don’t have fancy costumes or alter egos, and they all share the same superpower, which is not dying. Or not staying dead.
Andy is the boss because she’s been doing this the longest — since antiquity. The others include Joe and Nicky, lovers who met on opposite sides of the Crusades, and there’s Booker, who joined up during the Napoleonic Wars.
Much of “The Old Guard,” which gently clears a path for possible sequels, has to do with the initiation of the newest member of the team, a young United States Marine named Nile Freeman.
And also that future installments will build on the promise of this beginning, which suggests all kinds of possible developments. There’s a lot of back story to cover, and also various future conflicts within the old guard and between them and the rest of the world.