TL;DR – This is a film filled with these fascinating moments as they span the globe, only to be followed by what can only be described as a dour slog.  

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

The Old Guard 2 Review –

When I saw that The Old Guard 2 launched tonight, I was immediately interested. That was until I tried to remember anything about the first film and came up blank, which reminded me that The Old Guard came out in 2020, just shy of five years ago. Given it was such a large gap between outings, I wondered if this would have any connection for me or others. So, I sat down, got out some cheese, a nice glass, and found out.   

So, to set the scene, we open in Split, Croatia, where the immortal crew of Andy (Charlize Theron), Nile (KiKi Layne), Nicky (Luca Marinelli), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), and James (Chiwetel Ejiofor) infiltrate the compound of Konrad (Slavko Sobin), a very unpleasant arms smuggler and collector of the tackiest art know to humankind. It might be all fun and games, bar the fact that James is very mortal, and now so is Andy or as she was once known, Andromache of Scythia. They are on the hunt for who is buying up all this artillery, a mysterious woman that Nile has seen in her dreams. The only problem is that no one knows that Quỳnh (Veronica Ngô), a woman from Andy’s past, is back and might be hunting them down, one by one. But being trapped underwater, constantly drowning for 500 years, might have an impact on your mood.

While there were several frustrating elements in the film, it was also marked by these fascinating moments that were just captivating. I had a lot of fun with the opening battle sequence. We get to see everyone back; they did a good job of reminding you of who everyone was and the central premise, and it was a solid action sequence to boot. Add to this just about everything that happened in Rome. Having Andy slip back in time as she walked the streets, and we see the different times she had visited the city, was a cool effect. It looked to be a solid mix of practical and digital effects with a seamless blend. It was then capped off with one of the best duels of the film, which let the movie show off just how good a martial artist Veronica Ngô is.

However, while these snippets were fundamentally engaging, they were sandwiched in between the rest of the film, which was just such a slog to get through. It suffers from many of the problems that plague sequels. It tries to up the lore from the first film by pretending new characters were there all the time; it didn’t work in Season 2 of Lost, and it didn’t work here. All the performances, past the introduction, are one note, and that note is dour. Every cast member is just swimming in it, and there is no nuance. You honestly start getting distracted and wonder when something interesting will happen, and then wonder if that was the intent. Finally, and probably its greatest crime is that it has big ‘middle film in a trilogitus’. When I realised there were ten minutes to go and nothing was getting wrapped up, I let out a deep sigh.       

In the end, do we recommend The Old Guard 2? I’m honestly not sure. There are some fantastic moments, but I am not sure they are worth the slog in between to get to them. Also, having the main bad guy be called ‘Discord’ led to some very unintentionally funny dialogue to anyone who has ever used the Discord ap. Have you watched The Old Guard 2? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked The Old Guard 2, we would recommend to you Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Old Guard 2
Directed by – Victoria Mahoney
Screenplay by – Greg Rucka & Sarah L. Waker
Story by – Greg Rucka  
Based on – The Old Guard by Greg Rucka & Leandro Fernández
Music by – Steffen Thum & Ruth Barrett
Cinematography by – Barry Ackroyd
Edited by – Matthew Schmidt
Production/Distribution Companies – Skydance Media, Denver and Delilah Productions, Marc Evans Productions & Netflix
Starring – Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Veronica Ngô, Henry Golding, Uma Thurman, Kamil Nożyński & Slavko Sobin
Rating  – Australia: MA15+;