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When it comes to mid/low-budget action-thrillers, Netflix has something of a reputation for reliably delivering palatable (if unmemorable) star vehicles: Carry-On, Triple Frontier, The Gray Man, the list goes on. But amid a sea of forgettable Netflix originals, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s 2020 superhero action flick The Old Guard was an unlikely diamond in the rough, cherished by a flock of loyal fans for its unique premise and abundance of LGBTQ+ characters.
Five years and one director later, The Old Guard 2 has finally arrived on Netflix, with Victoria Mahoney replacing Prince-Bythewood at the helm. With Charlize Theron and the rest of the film’s original cast (Kiki Layne, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Matthias Schoenaerts) returning for the second installment, The Old Guard 2 delivers much of the same gritty, super-healing-enhanced action and found family charm that made the original an unlikely fan favorite.
But while all the pieces may be on the board, there’s something about Mahoney’s direction that doesn’t quite click, and though Greg Rucka and Sarah L. Walker’s script adds intriguing new lore and depth to the rules around immortality in the film’s world, The Old Guard 2 feels less like a film that can stand on its own two feet and more of a stepping-stone towards a finale.
The Old Guard 2 finds a newly-mortal Andy (Theron) hiding out with the rest of her team: Nile (Layne), Joe (Kenzari), Nicky (Marinelli) and CIA operative Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the group having banished Booker (Schoenaerts) for selling them out in the first film. While in exile, Booker is confronted by Andy’s immortal lover Quynh (Veronica Ngô), who is free from her watery prison and wants revenge on The Old Guard for leaving her to an eternity in the ocean.
Unbeknownst to Andy and Booker, Quynh was rescued by Discord (Uma Thurman) another immortal intent on weaponizing the secrets of everlasting life against mortals. While it may have been based on a graphic novel, the first “Old Guard” film is a relatively self-contained adventure: one that leaves the door open for future installments, but that’s more interested in exploring this specific group of heroes than the circumstances that created them.
The Old Guard 2 takes the opposite approach: overloading the script with universe-expanding lore that adds complicated wrinkles to what seemed like a cut-and-dry premise: immortal mercenaries. Instead, the sequel plays with the events of the first film, recontextualizing certain encounters and building towards a cliffhanger ending that all but demands The Old Guard 3 from Netflix.
Assuming a third Old Guard film is made, the lore-heavy approach may be a forgivable but necessary middle step in the grand scheme of a larger trilogy, but when it comes to the pacing of The Old Guard 2 the volume of exposition clouds the focus on what made the first film such a success: the characters.
Nile, Joe, and Nicky suffer the most under the narrative burdens of the sequel – often sent on side quests or relegated to perimeter reconnaissance, Nile is completely reframed as an ensemble member as opposed to the protagonist she was in the first film. Though Joe and Nicky start the film strong with a spirited car chase that gives a taste of their chemistry, the duo are completely lost (literally and figuratively) in the back half of the film as The Old Guard 2 shifts focus towards Andy, Discord and setting up for act three.
In the few character-centric moments they do get, Kenzari and Marinelli crackle with charisma, injecting much-needed life into an otherwise bone-dry script as they race through the Italian countryside or drunkenly bicker at the dinner table. Ejiofor’s Copley gets completely lost in the globetrotting shuffle of Andy’s antics, with newcomer Tuah (Henry Golding) filling a similarly extraneous position in an already large cast.
There are times when it feels like Andy, Quynh, and Discord are the only characters The Old Guard 2 is interested in, and Booker suffers the most for it. In the first installment, Schoenaerts’ sullen Frenchman sells his team out to a scientist who promises to find a way to end immortality, and Booker’s self-destructive tendencies play a key role in setting the stage for Andy and Discord’s ultimate confrontation.
Though the revelations in The Old Guard 2 about the nature of immortality and how it can be given (or taken away) align with both the events of the first film and Booker’s death wish, it’s still frustrating to see the character ultimately tossed aside in favor of Andy. Schoenaerts, for his part, wrings maximum emotion out of Booker’s precious few scenes, particularly the encounters with Quynh.
As for Quynh herself, Veronica Ngô is without question the strongest addition to The Old Guard 2. Strong and stoic yet vulnerable and earnest, Ngô plays Quynh with all the requisite depth, fury, and grief of a woman who spent 500+ years abandoned by her lover in eternal torture at the bottom of the ocean.
But while Ngô’s performance is brilliant (nearly all of Theron’s best scenes are opposite her), she too ends up slightly lost in the grand scheme of the film’s finale, which shifts all its focus towards building Discord up as the ultimate big bad. Though Thurman is an unequivocal action icon, Discord is a dull, lifeless character in a film already bursting at the seams with immortals in need of fleshing out.
Though ending on a cliffhanger without a sequel announced is a respectably gutsy move, the ending of The Old Guard 2 is hugely unsatisfying for both fans of the original film and anyone looking to enjoy an action movie over the holiday weekend. Between the lackluster direction, baffling music supervision, and abundance of characters, The Old Guard 2 is a scattered sequel held together by strong source material and a talented ensemble.
Grade: C
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