Among Netflix’s catalog of interchangeable action movies, The Old Guard boasts a rare quality: characters we can actually care about. Led by Charlize Theron as an enigmatic, dry-witted badass (not exactly a stretch for her), its international cast injects as much personality as possible into a workmanlike script. Five years on, the much-delayed sequel pits its team of quasi-immortal warriors against a mysterious villain named Discord (Uma Thurman), in a new adventure involving a few cool fight scenes and a threadbare plot. Frustratingly inconclusive, it’s also clearly intended to be the second instalment of a trilogy, setting up a third movie that seems unlikely to happen.

Last time around, the young U.S. Marine Nile (KiKi Layne) was our point-of-view character, introducing us to The Old Guard‘s superhero-adjacent premise. After discovering that she has the ability to heal from any wound, Nile has to leave her original life behind, joining a secretive team of immortal heroes. Working in the shadows, they’ve been battling the forces of evil for millennia. 

With Charlize Theron’s ax-wielding Andromache as the oldest member, this team shares an intimate bond, brought together by a desire to use their powers for good. In the context of the film, this mostly seems to involve slaughtering bad guys using a photogenic combo of handguns and historical weaponry. Their missions offer a vigilante twist on Hollywood fantasies of U.S. interventionism (“What if we could solve human trafficking through targeted violence?”), utilizing a fraction of the creative potential of these indestructible heroes. To be frank, The Old Guard‘s lack of imagination is somewhat confusing, because both films were penned by the writer of the original Old Guard comics, Greg Rucka — a prolific DC and Marvel creator who is more than qualified to subvert the superhero genre.

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Blessed by an unseen supernatural force, none of the Old Guard know why they’re impervious to death. Technically speaking, “immortal” is also a misnomer here. They know from experience that after a few thousand years, their time will run out and they’ll begin to age and heal like a regular human — a fate that Andromache meets in the previous movie. Her newfound vulnerability adds an extra edge of tension, although for some inexplicable reason, she and the team’s mortal ally Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) still don’t wear bulletproof vests when wading into a gunfight in The Old Guard 2. You’d think that Andromache’s teammates would swaddle her in kevlar, aware that their fearless leader is now living on borrowed time.

4.5

The Old Guard 2

Like

• The chemistry between the central team of immortals
• Charlize Theron is an indisputable action star

Dislike

• The uninspiring plot
• Uma Thurman’s thinly written villain is a waste of cool casting
• The action scenes rarely do anything interesting with the heroes’ signature superpower
• The frustratingly inconclusive ending

Replacing director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Victoria Mahoney takes over to helm the sequel, displaying a skill for shooting hand-to-hand combat scenes: the film’s main strength in terms of action. Not surprisingly for a Netflix original, The Old Guard 2 otherwise struggles to establish any memorable set pieces or locations. We obviously can’t expect Mission Impossible stunts on a made-for-streaming budget, but in an ideal world they wouldn’t conclude the story with a boss battle staged on a featureless grey void, further sabotaged by horrible lighting.

As in the first movie, the best moments focus on relationships within the team, which now expands to include a new immortal character (Henry Golding) and the return of Andromache’s long-lost companion Quỳnh (Veronica Ngô). Think Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but with more intentional romantic ambiguity.

For the past 500 years, Quỳnh has been locked in a cage at the bottom of the ocean, drowning repeatedly in a cycle of deathless torment. Herein lies the true appeal of the Old Guard franchise, because while the writing isn’t necessarily elegant, there’s a real heart beating beneath the surface.

Unable to rescue her partner, Andromache has spent centuries stewing in grief and guilt. So when Quỳnh finally escapes, their eventual reunion becomes a fraught prospect. Will Quỳnh forgive her? Will she recognize who Andromache has become after so much time apart? How will Quỳnh handle 21st century life? Like so many elements of The Old Guard‘s world-building, these questions go half answered, inviting us to use our imaginations to fill in the blanks. There’s just enough of an emotional hook to inspire frustration when we pivot away from Quỳnh and Andy’s relationship, and back to some nonsense where the heroes have to defuse a bomb or whatever.

Among the supporting cast, these glimpses of emotional depth are equally tantalizing. Exiled for betraying his friends in the last movie, the depressive Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) is still a source of conflict. Meanwhile, the resident old married couple Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) still have fantastic chemistry, showcased in disappointingly limited screen time for those casual moments that make their role so charming. Having originally met while fighting on opposite sides of the Crusades, they’ve been together for 900 years and seem to enjoy every minute of it, providing an upbeat counterpoint to Andy and Quỳnh’s anguish. 

As the villainous Discord, Uma Thurman’s role ties into the mystery behind the Old Guard’s immortality. However, she doesn’t really get much to do, potentially because the film’s creative team had more extensive plans for her and Nile in the sequel. As it stands, Thurman’s presence just feels like an excuse to pit two iconic action stars against each other. But let’s be real here: Kill Bill, this ain’t. 

Between the half-baked ending, the underdeveloped plot, and the brief hints of interesting backstory, we’re left with a movie that by any reasonable metric is kind of a flop — but where I still find myself perversely hoping for a sequel. While Charlize Theron gets her due as the franchise’s A-list lynchpin, everyone else is punching way above their weight. These characters deserve meatier screen time and some kind of narrative closure, but given what we’ve seen so far, we can’t really blame Netflix if they pull the plug. 

Premieres: Wednesday, July 2 on Netflix
Who’s in it: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Veronica Ngô, Uma Thurman, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Henry Golding
Who’s behind it: Victoria Mahoney (director), Greg Rucka and Sarah L. Walker (writers)
For fans of: The Old Guard, Charlize Theron, the tantalizing allure of unrecognized greatness