REVIEW: ‘The Old Guard 2’ Is Distracted And Half-Baked

It’s been five years since the original film, three years of post-production, and finally, finally, The Old Guard 2 is hitting Netflix. And, the verdict? Eh.  The Old Guard, released in 2020 and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, succeeded due to a number of specific factors. It was a gleeful, diverse action film with queer threads, already setting itself apart from standard Western actioners.

It was released in the summer of 2020, a time when many of us were scaling the walls in a desperate desire to escape the restrictions of a COVID-riddled world. There are only so many things you can grill before even that activity grows tedious. With its globe-trotting narrative, immortal protagonists, and general air of fun, it was the necessary escape. 

Certainly, it had merits beyond time and place. The ensemble, including Charlize Theron, Kiki Layne, Luca Marinelli, Marwan Kenzari, and Matthias Schoenaerts, was superb, embodying their immortals with a lively and playful energy. The action was efficiently brutal, and Bythewood lends her tactile style to a story that, in the production hellhole of Netflix, could easily have succumbed to an overly edited and glitzy production. Its imperfections were evident and noteworthy, with too much lore and silly dialogue. But then a sequence like Joe (Kenzari) declaring his adoration for Nicky (Marinelli) would arise, leaving us breathless. 

All of which is to say that, despite the too-long post-production and the general issue of sequels, there were hopes, if not high hopes, attached to The Old Guard 2. But despite its best efforts, it can’t seem to even scale the lowest bar set for it, to, at the very least, be fun. 

Ngô Thanh Vân as Quỳnh is the major standout in The Old Guard 2. 

At just under two hours, the film drags on. We once again team up with Andy (Theron), Nile (Layne), Nicky, and Joe as they work their odd jobs. Booker remains exiled, and unbeknownst to the team, Quỳnh (Ngô Thanh Vân), the former friend of Andy who haunts her days, has been found by Discord (Uma Thurman), the oldest immortal. Andy is working to find peace after losing her immortality as she and her group emerge from hiding to fight the first of the immortals who threatens the world. 

Directed by Victoria Mahoney, from a screenplay by Greg Rucka based on his comic book of the same name, the film is lost in its own plot. Numerous engaging threads emerge throughout the runtime. There are so many threads that could be their own films. And yet, despite the strong cast and the interesting characters, none of them are given enough time to flourish with new characters (aside from one), given such haphazard introductions that it’s easy to forget key information about them once they’re offscreen. 

Of all the new characters, or, in this case, old characters who weren’t fleshed out, it’s Quỳnh who shines brightest. Vân delivers an enigmatic and charismatic performance as a character reentering the world following centuries of such unfathomable suffering and isolation. While her character’s plot, like the entirety of the film, is rushed, she is at least given a beginning-to-end plot. 

Charlize Theron dials down her star power. 

Vân is so good in The Old Guard 2 that it highlights how unengaged Theron is, her most constant onscreen partner. Theron excels in the action sequences. From her balletic, sword-wielding entrance to her give-and-take brawl against Vân to a showdown between fellow legendary action heroine, Thurman, she thrives in combat.

And, considering how constantly terrific she is, it’s a shame and surprising how listless she feels here, barring a few sequences. This could, in part, be due to the character’s ageless stoicism. But, more than anything, it feels like a byproduct of a messy production. 

The rest of the cast is strong when they’re allowed to focus, with even Layne taking a backseat, despite being the co-protagonist. The writing is too invested in its lore and the rules of immortality. By the time they start theorizing on how to stop and pass on immortality, they’ve lost interest. The Old Guard 2 desperately needed a finer edit on just what it was about the original that fans found so engaging—the characters. 

Instead, we get glaringly superfluous treatment of fan favorites and performances that are half-baked, as actors scramble to pick up the pieces of a story that, ultimately, is only half-written. Successful trilogies are possible. But it’s becoming actively frustrating to engage with a film only for it to end up being mere set up. There’s no enjoyment in films that act as stepping stones. Embrace ambiguity and open-endedness but offer a sense of finality so that there’s closure on this particular chapter.  

The Old Guard 2 briefly recaptures prior magic.

There are moments where The Old Guard 2 recaptures prior magic. Certain fight sequences dazzle, especially the hand-to-hand combat, which effectively showcases the physicality of the characters. Meanwhile, the bigger set pieces, such as car chases and aerial stunts, suffer from restrictive direction. It’s jarring editing and rushed pacing strip tension away. It’s why the direct combat works – because we get to exist in the moment. 

It’s also where we get some of the best relationship moments. While Nicky and Joe only get a few noteworthy sequences, the jilted-lovers narrative for Andy and Quỳnh contains the only heat. While there are no explicit declarations, there’s something implicit and implied, and the actresses and their chemistry deepen this. 

The chemistry between the actors is another carryover from the first film that allows The Old Guard 2 to maintain any interest. Because even as the plot grows unwieldy and the film suffers for it, we, at the very least, care about the characters. It’s just a shame the film doesn’t seem to share the sentiment by giving them more time to act against one another. 

The Old Guard 2 succumbs to the Netflix algorithm. It features action set pieces, a strong ensemble, and destination settings, but it lacks the fun and soul of its predecessor. If it gets its desired third film, here’s hoping that the writing will remember the heart at its core and the reason we all came back for the second film. It was the characters we connected with, their fearlessness in battle, not their immortality. 

The Old Guard 2 is out now on Netflix.