Early into The Old Guard, as we watch our scruffy, grittier version of The Avengers succumb to a firing squad, the question becomes: How do you make a high-stakes, still-captivating movie about a bunch of heroes who can’t really die? Prince-Bythewood manages to do that by delivering intense, gory action sequences where the stakes feel just as high as when our leads’ lives are on the line. She is so damn good. By depicting the physical toil of the squad’s resurrections, Prince-Bythewood shows that pain, even with recovery, can sometimes be a fate worse than death. That’s the inner conflict for Andy, a mercenary who has been trying to change the world for centuries. She’s fed up, but when her team is in danger, she steps up. The Old Guard is a superhero movie, yes, but it's also a sweet, tender take on friendship, life and its fragility. The emotional depth of this film and these characters is what separates it from Netflix’s other action movies . And it’s what happens when you put women in front and behind the lense.