Andy (Charlize Theron) leads a small group of mercenaries - Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), Nicky (Luca Marinelli) - that has been around for literally centuries, fighting for what they think at any given time is right, and they have one advantage over all their adversaries, they have special healing powers and cannot be killed. They don't even age, actually, as Andy has been around since ancient Greece, and she has collected her companions through the centuries. Of course, they keep their special "talent" a secret, but it seems their latest employer, Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), has found out about it, and plans to sell them out to big pharma entrepreneur Merrick (Harry Melling), who pretty much wants to develop a heal-all medicine out of their DNA. So Andy and company are lured into an ambush - which they manage to escape from with ease due to their special abilities. That night, they all have a dream about another immortal, Nile (KiKi Layne), who has just been killed and come back to life serving in Afghanistan. So Andy picks her up, and using quite some persuasion makes her accept her fate and recruits her for the team. But the team is soon under threat from Merrick and his goons who take Joe and Nicky hostage. At the same time Andy realizes her healing capabilities are gone, still she wants to storm Merrick headquarters with Booker and Nile, but Nile declines, only seeing the bloodshed Andy and company leave behind, not the good they might do. Andy and Booker storm Merrick's lion's den on their own - but Andy then has to realize she has been sold out by Booker, who thought medicine made from their DNA actually could benefit humankind - but he's imprisoned with the others and realizes much too late that Merrick doesn't give a fuck about mankind, only about profits. But Nile has since found out about all the good that has come out of Andy and company's actions, so she and Copley, who has also had a change of heart seeing how ruthless Merrick goes about things, go on a rescue mission to save Andy and friends ...

For a superhero movie, this is actually very solid entertainment: The lead characters are no goodie-two-shoes whose actions are noble by definition but pretty much broken humans tired of living and hurting whose decisions at times are questionable, their motivations (self-preservation, basically) are believable, the action, albeit choreographed for the aesthetics' sake, is down-to-earth, the violence is raw, and the whole thing as a nice flow to it. On the downside, the film doesn't spend too much time on characterisations - in fact everyone but Andy and Nile remain flat, which is a shame especially when taking Booker, who could have been wonderfully ambivalent and yet his treachery just seems like something he has done on a whim. Also, the film makes too much of an effort to suggest a sequel, even introducing the baddie (Van Veronica Ngo) already instead of flashing out our heroes' backstories more. That all said, this is fun entertainment - not exactly a masterpiece perhaps, but much more relatable than most of the Marvel movies and most other contemporary superhero-fare.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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