Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks,
so let us talk about ‘The Old Guard’ instead with as much of spoilers avoided
as possible.
It is a good film, and an enjoyable
one; one that is not too strongly affiliated with DC or Marvel or whatever. The
cast is good and the plot is, yes, ‘borrowed’ from the original comic series,
but is still delivered well enough.
More precisely, ‘The Old Guard’ is a
good, enjoyable film. Does it have flaws? Yes, it is not exactly bees’ knees
all the way, but it certainly is not anywhere as bad as ‘Cats-2019’, ‘Dolittle-2020’
or ‘Artemis Fowl-2020’ were. Even ‘Like a Boss’ (also 2020) is almost better
than those films, and ‘Like a Boss’ is quite insipid itself.
On a more detailed look… yes, ‘The Old
Guard’ is very reminiscent of the ‘Highlander’ franchise, though, again, both
the movie script writers and the original comic writers did their best to also
put in plenty of differences from the latter, so ‘The Old Guard’ does come off
as quite original despite the overall similarities between the two. It also
ends with a cliffhanger, which means a positive, optimistic note for the movie
franchise’s future, but you know? Plenty of failed films, from the 1990s
onwards, ended with those as well, (such as ‘The Mario Brothers’ film from the
aforementioned 90s). Anything else?
…Will I be watching any sequels for ‘The
Old Guard’ should they come out, (and there isn’t another COVID-19-level
emergency around)? Well, yes. It is certainly an enjoyable film, and if the
sequels will be just as good, I will download them as well. Anything else?
Sadly, this is it, so instead I am
giving you a piece of my original fiction instead. Here it goes:
The chase was long and
very lively. The Dilophosaurus, which became independent only a little while
ago - until recently, he had lived with his mother, and fed and hunted
alongside her, but now it was time for him to become an independent grown-up -
was fleeing quite quickly from a herd of Anchisaurus, a species of pro-sauropod
dinosaurs. At this moment in time - it was the early Jurassic, around 200 MYA -
the pro-sauropods were only humble forerunners of the great reptilian giants
that would arise on the planet 50 million years in the future from now, but
speaking of 'now'? The Anchisaurus herd numbered easily a dozen dinosaurs, and
the Dilophosaurus was on his own.
...True, under normal circumstances, the
situation would not have been too difficult; the numbers would not have
mattered: a Dilophosaurus would ambush the pro-sauropods with their attack and
the dim-witted herbivores would flee, while the theropods feasted. The
Dilophosaurus of this story did exactly that, but the Anchisaurus herd by
accident fled in his direction, and now he had to run away instead.
At the edge of his sight the Dilophosaurus,
(unlike the later theropods - Allosaurus, Tyrannosaurus - the Dilophosaurus'
eyes were located more to the sides of the head), noted some movement there and
instinctively jumped in this direction.
He made it just in time. A pack of
Megapnosaurus, smaller distant cousins of the Dilophosaurus, appeared on the
scene: apparently, the nominal pack leader tried to ambush the bigger
carnivore, while the latter was distracted, and the rest of Megapnosaurus
followed... The leader had missed; it had only stirred up the rest of the pack
in vain, and confused the Anchisaurus even more: the pro-sauropod herd sharply
shifted the angle of their race and fled in a different direction...
In addition, the Megapnosaurus looked around
and were confronted by the Dilophosaurus, which had recovered from his fright,
listened to the noises in his stomach, and realized that he was hungry - and
therefore angry. Megapnosaurus numbered many, Dilophosaurus - only one, but he
was the bigger and stronger dinosaur here, and in the early Jurassic, when the
dinosaurs were only beginning to evolve into the upcoming lords of the planet,
this was enough. The Dilophosaurus charged at the nearest Megapnosaurus and
tore into it literally, eating it while the smaller theropod was technically
still alive. The remaining pack of the smaller carnivores fled...
...Many millions of years later, when the
paleontologists, who were running the dig, made a discovery - petrified tracks
of pro-sauropods, and of one or two species of theropods, plus theropod, (of
single or several specimens?), bones scattered all over the territory in
question. The discussion about just what had happened here went for a long
time...
End
This is it for now. Comments?
Criticisms?
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