‘The Old Guard 2' Review: Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne Bring All the Right Moves, but Netflix Sequel Doesn't Have the Same Kick

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A welcome surprise after months of COVID lockdown and upended release schedules, The Old Guard came along in 2020 to demonstrate that hard-charging action and emotionally textured drama need not be mutually exclusive. Its well-developed lead characters could handle themselves with MMA fight moves, knives, swords and Bronze Age axes. But they also had soulful interiority, their immortality sentencing them to existences of aching solitude and loss. Arriving five years later, Netflix's sequel has most of those elements, but it's missing the secret sauce — Gina Prince-Bythewood's commanding direction.
Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne return as, respectively, the ancient — though still gorgeous, toned and nimble — warrior and the powerful fledgling immortal, along with a solid supporting cast that includes Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli as Joe and Nicky, the gay couple whose relationship spans centuries. Joe's unabashed declaration of love and the passionate kiss they shared in the back of a truck full of macho armored thugs in the first movie was a gift to queer audiences starved for representation in superhero cinema.
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Again adapted by Greg Rucka from the graphic novel series he authored with illustrator Leandro Fernandez, this time working with co-writer Sarah L. Walker, the sequel obviously can't repeat the novelty of its predecessor. But the first film worked not just thanks to the dimensionality of the characters and the charismatic cast. It was also very much about the muscularity Prince-Bythewood brought to the physical action and the corresponding depth she instilled in the emotional beats.
Victoria Mahoney, who has directed extensively on episodic television as well as second unit on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, does a polished job and maintains a confident pace. But the sequel ultimately is more competent than thrilling, and its moments of pathos too seldom resonate.
The last film ended with Andy (Theron) mysteriously losing her immortality; fellow soldier Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) exiled for 100 years because of a betrayal; and CIA agent Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) switching sides, pledging to use his expertise to cover the group's tracks and steer them to wherever their services were needed. A coda six months later showed Booker drowning his sorrows in Paris, coming home to find Quynh (Veronica Van) in his apartment.
That immortal was the beloved companion of Andy, way back when it was just the two of them, though the sequel again declines to address the implication that they were lovers. (Why the coyness? Did Netflix think two queer couples were too many?)
Quynh was condemned for witchcraft 500 years earlier and buried alive at sea in an iron casket wrapped in chains. Her ability, like her fellow immortals, to regenerate every time she dies means she has been coming back to life and drowning again for five centuries. That gave Quynh ample time to feed her hatred for humanity and her rage at Andy, who had promised to be by her side until the end. She's fished out of the ocean and revealed gasping for breath in a brief prologue.
The movie proper gets off to a promising start with its most exhilarating action set-piece, unfolding at a magnificent villa on the Croatian coast where a large arms deal is taking place. (In reality, it's a gorgeous piece of real-estate porn on Lake Como; the production was mostly shot in Italy.) While Nile (Layne) observes from a boat and Joe and Nicky distract some of the guards by speeding off in two vintage sportscars parked outside, Andy and Copley enter the mansion, where she conveniently finds a hefty sword hanging on the wall.
Mahoney, cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, fight choreographer Georgi Manchev and the cast and stunt crew are all working at the top of their game here, with beatdown after beatdown, intercut with a pulse-racing car chase as Joe and Nicky are pursued by guards. The bravura sequence gets a fresh jolt when Nile abandons her lookout vessel and makes a spectacular entrance.
Unfortunately, while there are plenty of kickass fight scenes to come, the sequel never quite regains the opening's explosive energy. But nor is it ever dull, meaning fans of the first movie will want to stay the course.
When the protagonists regroup back at their safe house, Copley informs them that the dead man they believed to be the arms buyer was in fact just a conduit for an unidentified woman, seen in a CCTV photo awaiting facial recognition results. But Nile recognizes her from a dream in a library full of ancient tomes.
That library is the result of many lifetimes of work by Andy's old friend Tuah (Henry Golding), who dropped out of soldiering to devote himself to documenting the immortals' place in history — the cause and effect of their exploits that Copley traced.
Tuah reveals that several volumes of his work were stolen by a woman of many names, now going by Discord (Uma Thurman), an immortal whose existence predates even Andy's. They learn that Discord has spent five centuries living in the shadows, amassing untold wealth and power. She is now going after an even greater prize, using Quynh to get to Andy and Co.
Rucka and Walker's script deftly fills in the blanks about the specific way an immortal can become mortal, which provides answers for Andy, as well as the revelation that the surrendered power can be bestowed on another.
That leads to affecting developments once the disillusioned Booker is accepted back into the fold. Andy's brooding nature gets fresh fuel with the vengeful Quynh's re-emergence, but with Nile now more accepting of her mentorship, the rapport between those two women acquires a new warmth and humor. 'I'm mortal, but I'm not retired,' Andy deadpans when Nile shows concern about her state of mind.
There's an electrifying fight scene, freighted with emotional baggage and guilt, after Andy tracks Quynh down in Rome and they duke it out in an alley with lots of fancy footwork. While there's no shortage of guns, knives and assorted other blades used in the clashes, the emphasis on physicality, on body against body, is a strength shared by both movies. Ditto the fact that, mortal or immortal, the characters feel the pain of their injuries.
The hangout scenes once again are pleasurable, even if Kenzari and Marinelli are underutilized aside from their daredevilry in the early car chase. Nothing comes close to the swoony magic of their big moment in the first film, though it's sweet to watch them stagger off to bed together, with Joe playfully berating Nicky over his snoring when he's been drinking. But an intimate scene that appears to be building toward a kiss instead ends with them nuzzling foreheads. Boo!
Still, the fact that these two have been spared much of the loneliness and sorrow suffered by their comrades because they have always had each other provides a tender note of queer affirmation.
The climactic stretch, while it folds in some moving moments for Andy, becomes more routine once the action shifts to a Chinese-run secret nuclear facility in Indonesia, rigged with explosives. Everything points toward the inevitable smackdown between Andy and Discord — not to mention between Theron, whose fight skills have been on display not just in The Old Guard, but also in Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde, and Thurman, immortalized as Black Mamba in the Kill Bill movies. But that anticipated face-off underwhelms.
The cliffhanger ending clearly indicates a third movie in the planning, so maybe the filmmakers are saving their big guns for a final chapter. Whatever its shortcomings, The Old Guard 2 is a better-than-average original streaming feature — well acted by a highly capable cast, peppered with enough action to satisfy most appetites, and underscored with a melancholy vein of introspection about the conflicted roles of superheroes.
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