Netflix’s Highlander-alike fails to make a case for an ongoing franchise.
I dug The Old Guard well enough. Netflix’s 2020 mystical actioner, adapted by Greg Rucka from the comic he created with artist Leandro Fernández, scratched a certain urban fantasy itch. I’m more than happy to watch Charlize Theron as ancient warrior Andromache of Scythia (Andy is fine) lead a team of immortal mercenaries against a mixed bag of assorted droogs – it’s like Highlander methadone.
And now, as if to test that assertation, here comes The Old Guard 2, a film that certainly contains the key ingredients (Theron + swords) but not much else. Where the first film was a serviceable fantasy action movie buoyed by a killer cast and some decent fight choreography, it also took the time to foreshadow some narrative complications to be dealt with further down the road. The much-delayed sequel doesn’t ignore them, but it deals with them in the most perfunctory and uninteresting way possible.
So, the banishment of ally-turned-traitor Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), sent to Coventry for a century as punishment for betraying the team to slimy pharma-suit Steven Merrick (Harry Melling)? Sorted within six months. The return of immortal wild card Quỳnh (Veronica Ngô), who was sealed in an iron maiden and dumped in the ocean for 500 years? No lasting psychological damage from that, apparently. Same goes for newbie immortal Nile Freeman (Kiki Layne) – her induction into the ranks of the undying seems to have been surprisingly angst-free.
Which would be fine if all that was broomed to make way for an interesting story, but The Old Guard 2 suffers from a terminal case of Middle Movie Syndrome. It’s more invested in arranging the table for a mooted (and unlikely) third film that doing anything fun here. Many such cases, as they say, and it probably boils down to people learning all the wrong lessons from The Empire Strikes Back.
And when it’s not doing that, it’s explaining the mechanics of immortality, which boil down to immortality being a bit of a movable feast that can be transferred from individual to individual via wounding. It’s handled clunkily enough that it needs to be spelled out for the audience more than once, and the end result is that The Old Guard is never dodging the Store Brand Highlander charges.
Which is a shame, because there’s no reason The Old Guard 2 shouldn’t work. The essential conceit is robust enough, and the charismatic cast commits to the bit. We even get Uma Thurman showing up as arch-villain Discord, an elder immortal turned arms dealer and general supervillain. But there’s just not enough here. In trying to be a keystone in a potential franchise, The Old Guard 2 forgets to be a good movie in its own right.
The Old Guard 2 is streaming on Netflix now.
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