Film: The Old Guard 2
Cast: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Uma Thurman, Luca Marinelli, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Van Veronica Ngo, Henry Golding
Director: Victoria Mahoney
Rating: 2 stars
Runtime: 105 min
“The Old Guard,” released on OTT during the pandemic in 2020, was a streaming hit. The story, inspired by a graphic novel, presented a team of immortals out to take down threats and deal with issues about their longevity. Five years later, we got this sequel. Director Victoria Mahoney is unable to make this a fun experience. The subplots, characters, and action in the film don’t cohere into a vibrant exciting whole. The tempo is surprisingly off, so there’s no excitement to be had. The film opens with a conflict in Croatia, where a weapons dealer puts Andy and the immortals in a dangerous situation.
Andy (Charlize Theron) a mortal, the leader of a special team that includes immortals Nile (Kiki Layne), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), Nicky (Luca Marinelli), and ex-CIA mortal Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), is dedicated to stopping villainous actions around the globe. Just when Andy hopes to take a break, trouble returns. Her old immortal friend Quynh (Van Veronica Ngo), is pulled from the depths of the ocean by Discord (Uma Thurman), seeking revenge on Andy and the squad for abandoning her. Andy and the team seek out Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) for answers and Tuah (Henry Golding) for support. The immortal librarian searches for the motivation behind Discord’s actions. Booker returns from exile and Quyhn, is on a vendetta to kill her former family. The motivations are all a bit confused here.
Charlize Theron and the other actors put in great effort to make the fights look convincing and lend the emotional arcs some genuineness. The cinematography is not very effective. There’s no visceral flair and the camerawork feels listless. The finale set inside a nuclear facility is rather limp and unexciting.
The world-building is problematic. The new rules are confusing. Everything seems a bit more complicated. The screenplay by Greg Rucka and Sarah L.Walker does well to inform us about team dynamics and immortal abilities. But other than that and a few spurts of vigorous action which includes crashing vehicles, gun battles, and assorted fight choreography, much of it seems incomprehensible. The writing concentrates too much time on the rules of immortality. The editing lacks efficiency. The plotting is unwieldy.
Victoria Mahoney who took the baton from Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of the first instalment, doesn’t appear to have the ability or the flair to make this sequel interesting. The tempo doesn’t get to anything beyond lethargy with its characters wanting to destroy one another. The attempt to leave some of the subplots open-ended points to another sequel effort in the offing. Even though the runtime is under two hours it still feels like a drag.
