that was fun

[topaz119]

So, I watched The Old Guard over the weekend, and then watched it again last night, so I guess it's safe to say I liked it.

Non-spoilery: it's a comic book adaptation, with all the good and bad that entails, but it is a very well-cast adaptation and the production values are excellent. I half-watched Highlander back in the day, with which this shares the immortal warrior trope, but the best way I can express how much better this all looks is to compare it to how watching New!Who felt after decades of no-budget original Dr. Who. Or, really, like that first X-Men movie against all the cartoon-y Superman/Batman movies of the 70s/80s. Just--wow, look at that: look at all the money onscreen taking the source material seriously, not like a joke.

Also, omg, the found family feels, happysigh.



So, yeah, first of all, if it's going to bother you that the characters just heal, that it just happens, the script is not going to do you any favors. So far as we know in this first installment, it just happens. Of course, they conveniently didn't have time to destroy the samples/data of everyone's genetic material before they took off and I don't think our evil!doctor lady got killed when Nile stormed the lab, so we might possibly get answers to this going forward. (This is, actually, the one plot point that really annoys the crap out of me: they're a black ops team and they didn't make sure they got all the evidence? Really? Andy and Nile couldn't have gone back down to the lab while Nicky/Joe/Booker took off after our Elon-Musk-wannabe? I can handwave a lot, but that's going to trip me up every time.)

Also, this is based on a Greg Rucka property, so ... let's just say there's a fair amount of Big Dramatic Speech-ifying. He loves that sh*t. On the other hand, he generally gets the underlying motivations for the speeches right and the actors do a lot to smooth that over, so ... I only found myself rolling my eyes a few times rather than wanting to do the equivalent of throwing the trade paperback across the room as I usually do when other writers try to write actual emotion. But seriously, when Chiwetel Ejiofor can't quite make the lines sing, it's probably not the acting, yeah? (And I mean, he did it almost always, but once or twice, even he had a mouthful of words that he couldn't quite normalize. But hey, circling back to the production aspects, a) damn, that was a nice house he had; and b) I approve of his suits.)

But. Like I said, really well-cast and the actors all work so well together in all their relationships. And yes, the Joe/Nicky was excellent (and I'm not even talking about Joe's Big Speech, which I'm sure you've seen (and is another one of Rucka's moments that probably work better on the comics page, but my word, Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli did actually commit to it) but all the little things they did together and with each other, not in the least being the next time we see them after the Big Declaration, smiling and lethal and trapped) but so were the interactions between all the characters, from how Nicky hugging Andy was completely different than Joe hugging her 2 seconds later, to Booker giving her grief about 'knowing' Rodin, to the baklava and the side-bet that went along with it.

I mentioned the found family feels already, BUT HOMG, Y'ALL, THE FOUND FAMILY FEELS. THEY WERE SO GOOD. I don't even have to project them in fic or search for people who feel like I do. It's so so so canon we can just accept it and move on to getting the fucking history of the Crusades properly written around our (CANON) love story for the ages. (I have links for that if you feel the need. If you're set on writing historically accurate Joe/Nicky, regardless of the era, I will also send you cookies. Seriously. Even the HoB is done with all this pandemic baking. I can send you the excess.)

Anyway, yeah, I had fun with it. I'm diving into fic now & will hopefully be back with links. Love you all, stay safe, wear a mask, be excellent to each other. ♥

Comments

[beanside]

I totally loved The Old Guard. It's actually made me do some fic!

I think my favorite moment is after Merrick stabs Joe, he and Nicky are held on their knees next to each other, and they very gently bump heads. That did more for me than the Speech. (Though as you said, they acted the hell out of that.)

[spikedluv]

I read on Tumblr that that was an actor choice not in the script. Great moment!

[topaz119]

My youngest kid is an actor and as he's grown & taken on more mature roles, I've been fascinated by how much of what the audience sees is born out of the interplay between the actors (with the support of the director -- and good director makes it so the actors can go off in many directions to find what works best.) One of his best performances (and overall experiences) came from a script that had nothing but dialog and the cast/crew/director worked everything else out in rehearsals.

[topaz119]

I may fic, too! Have you posted yours? Did I miss it? (Also, HI, it's been ages, hasn't it!)

They had a lot of those little moments--Joe very carefully framing Nicky's face with his hands after the Head!Goon had put a gun in his mouth, like he was ready for this to be Nicky's time... yikes, that got me.

[beanside]

Hi! It's definitely been awhile. Life, it's a hell of a drug.

I posted two short fics: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25610407 which is an Andy/Booker pegging fic, set pre-movie.
And: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25597345 which is a gratuitous post-battle pwp with Andy/Quyhn.

I'll be looking forward to anything you might write!

[topaz119]

Well, those were fun!

[spikedluv]

Such a good movie! I haven't taken the time to actually study it because I'm still rolling around in the feels. *g*

[topaz119]

I skipped a lot of the fights on the second watch and indulged the feels--I highly recommend this course of action!

[destina]

I too loved this movie, tho not as much as I wanted to...it definitely had it clunky moments, many of which were dialog-related and you pointed them out here. But it hit me the same way with found family, I loved that so much. (Which made exile, tho deserved, even more poignant.)

[topaz119]

Yeah, I feel like if I went and got the graphic novel, some of that stuff would be verbatim and I'm sure it was fine in the comics context, but it was a little much with all the actual live-action scene happening around it.

I may or may not have started scribbling notes about a villa in Tuscany while waiting in line at the pharmacy this afternoon, but nobody saw me and so far, there is no proof.

[kaelie]

We also enjoyed it much! Looking forward to part two.
Be well, stay safe, Missy! (hearts)

[topaz119]

Yeah, there are so many things I'm looking forward to! I hope they all survive the apocalypse and come to me (specifically, the Pike spin-off, S2 of The Witcher, and this next movie.)

(Did I scream at you about Harry & Meghan's final tour? Because there was some screaming going on in the HoB. God, that seems like a decade ago, but it was all right before the world fell apart, yiiiii.)

[kaelie]

Missy, talk to me about The Witcher. We watched the first episode or two of season one, and then the next episode was so painful and dark (the one about the peasant girl being brutalized) I bailed in the middle of that episode and never went back. It sounds like it got better? I did like the main character and I love fantasy so it should be right up my alley, but I'm a little emotionally fragile this year.

Gimme Pike. Gimme Pike NOW. Ahem.
You and I did squeeeeeee over the H&M farewell tour (the photo in the RAIN OMG) and this week I've been wallowing in glee over their netflix deal, payback for Frogmore, and independence from the Duchy of Cornwall.

[topaz119]

I felt like we had yelled at each other over the farewell tour, but I couldn't find it here or on insta, but then realized it was on twitter, so, yes, okay. I'm cautiously excited to see what they do with netflix--I feel like they could really produce some good docs.

(OMG, PIKE. I can't wait!)

Okay, The Witcher. It *is* violent and bloody, for sure, but it did get better for me. I think one of the issues is that they're running 3 separate timelines in the early shows, so until you realize that, it's very disjointed on top of the nasty fights, etc, and there's a why-should-I-bother? about it all. If it helps, I think your brutalized peasant girl grows up to be a powerful sorceress. BabyBoy tells me the weird timelines are because they didn't want to not introduce Ciri (the little blonde princess who is running for her life at the end of the first ep) until later because she is super-important to Geralt. So her timeline is the current day, always, and Geralt's timeline starts about 30 years before that and the hunchback peasant girl starts 60 years before. All three come together by the end of the first season, so they're telling backstory while they're tracking Ciri after the sack and defeat of her city/kingdom.

Every single kid in the house love the games and BabyBoy is hugely into the books, too, so I had experts on call (and they could also tell me when bad stuff was going to start, which is v. v. helpful.)

[turps]

I enjoyed The Old Guard a lot, found family is a wonderful thing, and a bonus is how the fandom grew so quickly and is hopping right now. I do love that new fandom buzz.

That's excellent news fic may be in your future.

[topaz119]

I'm a couple of thousand words in, and it doesn't look like it's going to grow to ridiculous proportions, unlike the last thing that took over my brain, so I possibly might be able to post soon. ::crosses fingers::

Also, I'm so glad to hear James has recovered from the infection w/o having to have IV antibiotics. I hope all else is going well w/you & yours. <3

[turps]

Excellent news!

I know you're well versed in worrying about husbands. Good job they're worth it ♥