The Old Guard 2

The immortal warriors are back! This time, the world is once again at stake when it turns out that there are more immortals than Andromache/Andy (Charlize Theron) and her mercenaries, and these new faces definitely do not have humanity's best interests at heart. In addition to the new threat Discord (Uma Thurman) and a bitter old friend plotting revenge, Andromache must also contend with the fact that she is now mortal...

I enjoyed the first The Old Guard film when it came out and thought it was a fresh action flick that definitely had plenty of potential. Now that the sequel is here, I'm afraid that The Old Guard has immediately turned this Netflix-exclusive series into generic trash. A lot happens in The Old Guard 2, but then again, it doesn't, and for a film revolving around immortal comic book characters, it's surprisingly dull. Those who are not particularly invested in the lore or don't have the first film fresh in their memory will not find much to enjoy here, unfortunately. Action fans looking for intense fight scenes will also be disappointed by the film's cheap feel.

The direction is about as lax as the rules surrounding the characters' immortality, because now you can apparently swap mortality with each other... This gives The Old Guard mythology a tacked-on depth to an already messy script that lacks direction and consists mostly of clumsy exposition. Lead actress Theron stands out because she really gives her all to make The Old Guard 2 an emotional journey, and honestly, the focus should have been more on the vengeful Quynh, Andy's best friend who has been drowning in a coffin at the bottom of the sea for the past 500 years. Otherwise, the characters are not much to write home about. Unfortunately, Uma Thurman is given far too little screen time to make any kind of impression in a story that doesn't even have an ending!

That's right: The Old Guard 2 is just a bridge to The Old Guard 3, where the viewer is left clinging to the tamest cliffhanger ever. I had truly hoped for something more here. I haven't followed the comic book on which the film is based, but surely there must be more interesting things to do with characters who have lived for thousands of years and can heal themselves in seconds? The Old Guard 2 is an extremely stiff action film that works best as background noise while you're doing something else, an increasingly common pattern with new, lacklustre action films on streaming services, especially Netflix...