Time: 107 Minutes
Age Rating: R16– Violence
Cast:
Charlize Theron as Andy/ Andromache of Scythia
KiKi Layne as Nile Freeman
Marwan Kenzari as Joe/ Yusuf Al-Kaysani
Luca Marinelli as Nicky/ Nicolò di Genova
Matthias Schoenaerts as Booker/ Sébastien Le Livre
Veronica Ngô as Quỳnh
Chiwetel Ejiofor as James Copley
Uma Thurman as Discord
Henry Golding as Tuah/ Hang Tuah
Director: Victoria Mahoney

The Old Guard was a decent and surprising action movie. It teased a sequel in its ending and I was open to watching that if they actually decide to make it. Said sequel did get made, however it took 5 years to be made and released, and unfortunately, I don’t think that the wait was worth it.

I watched a recap of the first movie before watching its sequel and I’m certainly glad I did that. The Old Guard 2 doesn’t attempt to do any kind of recap of the previous events and characters and goes straight into the story, and if you had watched the first movie when it came out, no doubt in the 5 years since you forgot a number of details from it. While it starts off decent enough with some fun action, as it approaches its second act, The Old Guard 2 begins to wallow in lore building, melodrama and soap opera angst. I do like the ways that it does attempt to expand the lore, but I just didn’t find the vast majority of the movie particularly interesting, and the pacing is really off. There is a subplot between Charlize Theron and Veronica Ngo which has a lot of potential, but even that feels underserved here. This is especially strange considering that the end of the last movie hinted at this being a major aspect in its sequel. However, the main issue with The Old Guard 2 is that it just isn’t a complete story. The first movie stood perfectly well on its own with its own third act climax and had a little tease at the end opening the door for a sequel to continue the story. The sequel in contrast has an unfinished story, its climax feels like a second act action sequence, and the movie ends on quite a cliffhangar that actually makes you feel like you’ve been cheated. It wouldn’t be so bad if the overall experience was satisfying, but by the end, it didn’t feel like much happened in The Old Guard 2 and that its only purpose is to set up a third movie which might not even happen.

The returning cast with Charlize Theron. KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli perform their parts well as expected. Henry Golding and Veronica Ngo are also good with what they were given. Uma Thurman is brought in to play the main villain and while she acts her part fine, ultimately it feels like her appearance here is to tease her role in the planned third movie, as her motivations are held very close to the chest in this movie.

The Old Guard 2 has Victoria Mahoney as director instead of Gina Prince-Blythwood and while it wasn’t poorly directed, you could definitely tell the difference between the two. You feel the downgrade in the action; the choreography is good and has its moments, the editing was a little choppy but it was still comprehensible. Overall though, it wasn’t as exciting as the first movie’s action.

Despite a good cast and decent moments of action, The Old Guard 2 is a very underwhelming, disappointing and less interesting sequel, whose only existence seems to be to set up a third movie.