"The Old Guard 2" Is an Incoherent Mess
Fans of the original film will be disappointed by the sequel
I have a weakness for quasi-mystical action-adventure movies. When Netflix released The Old Guard in 2020, I enjoyed its take on the classic theme of an eternal, hidden war between the forces of good and evil. It took the idea of a hidden race of immortals, which had been largely perfected by the Highlander franchise, and gave it more of a cosmic significance, which I appreciated.
So, when I saw that the excellent cast of The Old Guard had been reunited for The Old Guard 2, I was excited to see how the story continued. The trailer looked pretty good!
Well, unfortunately, the movie itself is not good. At all.
Let’s start with the script. It has some big issues: the characters started off seeming interesting, but none of them had a meaningful narrative arc; the dialogue was flat and lifeless; and the plot was full of in-story inconsistencies (such as characters that are thousands of years old finding the answer to their question in “legends” that are more recent than they are).
The lackluster script might have been salvaged by a good director, but unfortunately, The Old Guard 2 didn’t have one. Victoria Mahoney’s background as an actress and second-unit director (the person who films close-up shots of people’s hands and other details that don’t require creative decisions) clearly did not qualify her to helm a major motion picture. The pacing is abysmal: important scenes were hurried through, while a minor subplot regarding a quibble between two gay men was inexplicably drawn out and emphasized.
Mahoney’s cinematography choices were equally disjointed. Some scenes were filmed with shaky hand-held camera work that did not reinforce the emotional tone, while others were filmed with extreme telephoto lenses, also for no reason that visually supported what was happening.
Attempts at stylistic artistry also fell flat. In one scene, Charlize Theron’s character walks down a street that looks old-fashioned. About half-way through, I realized that this was supposed to indicate her traveling backward in her memories. Nothing in the filming, sound design, or acting made that clear, nor did any similar sequence occur anywhere else in the film.
The action scenes were nothing special, but they were competently done. I’m inclined to credit the editors and the extensive list of stunt and action professionals who worked on the movie for that, rather than the director.
Mahoney’s greatest crime is that she left an excellent cast rudderless. None of the actors seemed to know what to do. In the absence of meaningful guidance, Charlize Theron seems to have reverted to her Aeon Flux character from 2005, while Uma Thurman emotionlessly phoned in her part waving her Kill Bill katana. KiKi Layne is a promising young actress, but she needs more to work with than superficial girlboss posturing. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Henry Golding are inherently likable and sympathetic, but in this movie they are relegated to little more than earnestly delivering expositional dialogue.
To add insult to injury, the story doesn’t actually end. The movie draws out the first two acts of a three-act structure, and then ends on a cliffhanger with no resolution. However, since the audience has no reason to care about any of the characters or to feel emotionally invested in the narrative, it’s unlikely that anyone will be disappointed if a third Old Guard movie is never made.
I concur. Here is my review from IMDB.
From Semi-Immortal to Fully Insufferable
Spoilers
Seeing this sequel actually made me downgrade my opinion of the first film. I had issues with The Old Guard, but at least it had a solid concept. This follow-up squanders everything-the mythology, the characters, the pacing-while piling on even more convoluted lore and meaningless action sequences.
The film opens with an incoherent mission in Croatia involving... stolen swords? Even the official plot summaries don't explain it. That should be a red flag. Andy (Charlize Theron), who supposedly lost her immortality in the first film, is still going out on combat missions like it's no big deal. Even more baffling is that Copley-the shadowy CIA guy-is somehow tagging along for the ride despite being mortal and untrained in any kind of combat. No explanation is given.
What had me most curious going in was how Quynh escaped her centuries-long torment, trapped in an iron maiden under the sea. Sadly, the answer is: offscreen and unexplained. Discord (Uma Thurman), the first immortal, finds and frees her. Quynh then blames Andy for not rescuing her, even though she was imprisoned 500 years ago, long before sonar, scuba gear, or any remotely plausible method of tracking her underwater location existed. Andy even says she tried to look-but how? Swim circles around the ocean floor for eternity?
And why is Quynh's anger directed only at Andy? Discord was literally present at Quynh's capture and did nothing for centuries. But the story needs Andy and Quynh to fight, so we get the predictable showdown between two equally powerful warriors-another action trope on autopilot.
The mythology completely falls apart here. Tuah, a new character introduced as a sort of immortal librarian, reveals that Nile-our newest recruit-is somehow the "last immortal," and that if she wounds another immortal, that person will lose their regenerative powers. This, we're told, explains why Andy lost her immortality in the previous film: she was injured by Nile during their first encounter. It's a giant retcon inserted just to create more plot twists.
And then there's Booker. In the first film, his betrayal of the group made little sense-trusting a sadistic pharmaceutical CEO to end his suffering after centuries of loyalty was already hard to swallow. Now, in Part II, we get the predictable redemption arc: a "sacrifice" to restore Andy's immortality. It's exactly the kind of mechanical, screenwriting-101 move you expect when a character has nothing left to do. There's no meaningful development between films-just a scripted apology and a noble death. The series keeps insisting he's complex, but never bothers to show it.
Kiki Layne's performance as Nile remains flat and one-note. Her dialogue is often exposition-heavy and lacks emotional nuance. Meanwhile, Discord's motivations are unclear. She criticizes the violence of Andy's team but then engages in even more of it herself.
The climax, involving a nuclear facility and last-minute redemptions, is uninspired. The final fight is predictable and ends with a cliffhanger that suggests a third film-though after this installment, that feels more like a threat than a promise.
Conclusion: The Old Guard II takes a potentially interesting mythology and buries it under shallow action scenes, incoherent rules, and recycled character beats. Booker's arc, like so much else here, feels less like storytelling and more like box-checking. If the first film hinted at wasted potential, this one confirms it. Immortality may be hard to kill-but this franchise is running on borrowed time.