The Old Guard 2 review: Worth the wait, with a catch

It feels good to say this: The Old Guard 2 is finally here. Even better: it’s a worthy successor to the first film, which was released back in July 2020. Five years in between films is a long time, but The Old Guard 2 was worth the wait. There are elements to this sequel that don’t quite work, like the lore changes, and parts of it that could use more time developing, like the interpersonal lives between the characters. But it hits on a lot of technical levels, and the chemistry between all the characters is just as good in the first film.

The Old Guard 2 features plenty of action sequences, including one that opens the film. The team is infiltrating a house with questionable art decor to take out someone named Conrad. There’s not much information provided about why they are after this guy, which ends up being one of the film’s main issues. The overarching plot of the film feels untethered from the events unfolding on screen. There’s loosely some larger threat to the world and to the immortals themselves, but the significant details lack cohesion.

This opening action scene is great, though, and reintroduces each team member’s role quite well. Despite the seriousness of their mission, there’s plenty of fun in how they operate together. Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) view it as a competition, their bond and love still air tight. Andy (Charlize Theron) still enters first despite being mortal, and Nile’s (Kiki Layne) still big on making epic entrances, still new to her immortality.

This camaraderie is present but it’s clearly not a priority in the face of the main threat and villain of the film, Uma Thurman’s Discord. One thing both films don’t seem to understand is that the nature of their immortality is the least interesting part of these characters. It’s their history and their relationships over centuries that make these films unique, but The Old Guard 2, much like the first film, focuses too narrowly on how and why their immortality works.

There are so many good, small moments between the characters that it’s disappointing how little we actually get of them. Joe and Nicky have a fascinating dynamic and relationship, brought beautifully to life by Kenzari and Marinelli but we only get to see it in flashes. It is nice to see some depth brought to their relationship by way of conflict. Joe and Nicky have an argument about Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), but there’s no resolution to it or real moments between the three of them after Booker’s betrayal in the first film. This is a huge missed opportunity when considering these characters have known each other for centuries, yet their on screen presence together is severely limited.

Nile gets moments with Joe and Nicky, something that didn’t happen in the first film, but what’s truly missing is her viewpoint on immortality and her role in it. She was a great POV character in the first film, but her perspective gets lost in the larger plot of this one.

Instead, The Old Guard 2 focuses largely on new lore for the immortals. This lore is movie specific, so not a part of the comics at all. There’s nothing inherently wrong with providing new lore for a different medium, but here, the rules of the film’s premise get confusing and murky. In the first film, the team explains to Nile that they dream of each other before they meet.

But when Discord appears, as well as new character Tuah (Henry Golding), it’s clear that neither Andy, Joe, Nicky, or Booker have ever dreamt of them before. Andy meets Tuah after Quynh’s thrown into the ocean but she keeps him a secret from Joe and Nicky, who are upset by this revelation. However, there’s no further explanation for why they didn’t know about these other immortals. And despite being a team for centuries, there’s no time to really get a feel for how Joe and Nicky feel about Booker, Tuah, or Quynh’s (Veronica Ngô) return.

Adding to the world of The Old Guard keeps the universe of the film lively. However, characters like Tuah are clearly only here for expository reasons. Tuah, a 2,300 year old immortal who keeps to himself but also holds knowledge of every immortal in his library, explains that Nile is the last immortal, which means that she can take away people’s immortality by injuring them. Immortality can also be freely given to another by the wounded person. This is what Discord is after as the first immortal, but the connection between Discord and Nile is tenuous at best, and these new lore explanations are hardly thought out. Discord’s ultimate goal is also murky, just general anger at Andy for meddling in human affairs.

The Old Guard 2’s strength lies in the relationship between Andy and Quynh. In the comics, the two were lovers, but the film keeps that part of their relationship unspecified. Still, it’s clear they have a strong bond, as witnessed in the first film. Quynh’s return from her deep sea grave of 500 years sparks a major rift between the two but despite the grief, their tether is strong.

Theron is at her best in the scenes with Ngô and Ngô brings Quynh’s anger to life in a beautifully tragic way that avoids turning Quynh into an out-right villain like she is in the comics. Their first meeting is a masterclass in tension, acting, and fight choreography. All good fight scenes tell a story, and Andy and Quynh’s reunion hits all the right beats for a fight sequence and for an emotional reunion between two characters with a lot of history. The music also helps amplify this meeting’s significance, almost acting like a third participant in the fight.

Victoria Mahoney takes over the directing gig for The Old Guard 2 from Gina Prince-Bythewood, who directed the first one. Mahoney adds her own vision to this world of immortals and way of telling their story. Having immortals as the main characters means there’s lots of history to cover. While The Old Guard 2 stays largely in the present day, there are beautiful moments that showcase their past, like when Andy walks through the streets of Italy, remembering fleeting moments of the team throughout the centuries on those very streets.

Mahoney is also great at letting scenes breathe and creating tension. While the film rushes a lot of things, it’s fantastic in a few but key intimate moments. Moments between Andy and Quynh, but also between Andy and Booker. If The Old Guard could figure out how to evenly balance these kinds of drawn out character moments for everyone, then it would enter a whole new playing field for action movies.

Despite grievances in story and larger lore implications, The Old Guard 2 is still a fun and emotional ride. Except it doesn’t have an ending. There’s cliffhangers, and then there’s cutting off Act 3 in the middle of the story, and The Old Guard 2 unfortunately breaks this grave storytelling rule. It’s one way to secure a third movie, and considering the long runway it took for this sequel to make it back on people’s television screens, it’s hard to not fault them trying to get people excited for a third movie. But it’s still an awkward ending to a film that was doing its job and having a great time doing it.

There’s plenty to love about The Old Guard 2 despite how much it leaves you wanting more, and not necessarily in the good way. However, if you’re looking to sit back and chill with an exciting summer blockbuster, The Old Guard 2 still delivers.

Katey Stoetzel

Katey is co-founder and tv editor for InBetweenDrafts. She hosts the “House of the Dragon After Show” and “Between TV” podcasts and can be read in various other places like Inverse and Screen Speck. She wishes desperately the binge model of tv watching would die, but still gets mad when she runs out of episodes of tv to watch.