Back in 2020, The Old Guard hit Netflix at just the right moment. Locked indoors during the early days of the pandemic, many of us gladly welcomed Charlize Theron and her band of immortal warriors as they sliced, shot, and soul-searched their way through a surprisingly emotional fantasy-action movie. It wasn’t revolutionary cinema, but it had style, heart, and a cool premise that made you want to know more about these ancient fighters.
Fast forward to 2025, and here comes The Old Guard 2. Same immortals, same moody lighting, same sleek action… but this time, it all feels like a soulless echo. Despite the return of most of the original cast and a few new star-studded additions, this sequel struggles to answer one basic question: Why should we care?
It All Starts with a Bang… That Fizzles Out
The movie kicks off with what might be its most engaging sequence—a fast-paced, stylishly shot assault on a gaudy Italian villa where shady arms dealers are doing shady arms dealer things. Andy (Charlize Theron), who’s now mortal following the events of the first film, charges in like an action movie terminator. As chaos erupts, her immortal teammates Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) get into a zippy car chase, and Nile (KiKi Layne) dramatically crashes a speedboat through a window, because why not?
Credit where it’s due: the editing (by Captain America vet Matthew Schmidt) and cinematography (Barry Ackroyd of The Hurt Locker) make this opening feel alive, kinetic, and genuinely exciting. For a brief moment, it seems like The Old Guard 2 might recapture the magic.
But then… it doesn’t.
A World of Immortals That Feels Surprisingly Lifeless
Once that high-octane opener fades, the film quickly settles into a much duller rhythm. Directed this time around by Victoria Mahoney, with a script by Greg Rucka (who also wrote the graphic novels), the film becomes a sprawling, unfocused slog. Where the first movie carefully built its world of ageless warriors and their philosophical dilemmas, the sequel feels rushed and lazy in its world-building.
Instead of organically expanding on what came before, the movie drops new characters and plot points like puzzle pieces from different boxes. Suddenly, Nile is having prophetic dreams about a mysterious figure named Discord (Uma Thurman) raiding an ancient library that belongs to Tuah (Henry Golding), another immortal. Andy and Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) set off to investigate, while Joe and Nicky chase down Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), who’s apparently still texting them despite betraying the team last time.
And yes, that’s a lot of globetrotting—none of which feels necessary. The movie constantly hops between locations, but without any sense of momentum or urgency. It’s like flipping through someone else’s vacation photos: visually interesting, but emotionally vacant.
So Many Characters, So Little Depth
The first film succeeded because we cared about the characters. Joe and Nicky weren’t just the team’s lovebirds—they were its heart. Nile’s entry into this strange new world gave us a relatable lens. Booker, for all his mistakes, was a man burdened by centuries of regret.
But in The Old Guard 2, that emotional richness is mostly gone. Joe and Nicky vanish for long stretches of the film. Copley, once a morally complex figure, now feels like a plot placeholder. Even Nile, who was once the audience surrogate, is reduced to a walking, talking plot device. Apparently, her wounds now hold magical properties: they can either take away another immortal’s powers or grant immortality to a mortal. Sounds cool, right? Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t explore the implications of that idea at all. It just throws it into the mix and keeps moving.
As for Discord—played by Uma Thurman in full villain mode—she’s a complete non-entity. We get the vague sense she wants power, or revenge, or maybe both? But the script never digs deep enough for her motivations to matter. If it weren’t for Thurman’s presence, Discord would be forgettable. And even she can’t quite save this character from being a one-note bore.
Charlize Deserves Better
With most of the ensemble sidelined or sleepwalking, that leaves Charlize Theron’s Andy to carry the weight of the movie. But even she seems underwritten this time. Now mortal, Andy should be grappling with her humanity—what it means to feel pain again, to know death is coming, to lose the one thing that once defined her. Instead? She cracks a joke about hangovers and occasionally groans when she stands up.
There’s no deeper reflection. No emotional arc. No philosophical musing about what it means to live when you used to be immortal. This rich narrative opportunity is waved away like a mosquito. And that’s a shame, because Charlize can sell those moments when given the chance. She just isn’t given one here.
The Quỳnh Problem
You’d think the return of Quỳnh (Vân Veronica Ngô), Andy’s long-lost immortal partner who spent centuries imprisoned in the sea, would be a huge deal. And it should be. Their bond was hinted at in the first film as something profound, even romantic. But rather than explore that emotional reunion in depth, the film forces their relationship to orbit around Discord’s generic world-ending schemes.
There is one brilliant exception, though. In a rare standout scene, Andy walks through a series of Roman-themed alleys, and the walls around her slowly morph into a vision of ancient Rome—where Quỳnh awaits. What follows is a beautifully choreographed fight sequence that doubles as a conversation between two people carrying centuries of unresolved pain. It’s poetic, poignant, and exactly the kind of storytelling this sequel needed more of.
But it’s a blip in an otherwise flatlining movie.
No Team, No Stakes, No Soul
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about The Old Guard 2 is that it forgets the one thing that made the original work: its soul. These weren’t just cool warriors with swords and scars. They were tired. They were haunted. They were family. They clung to each other because the world kept changing and they stayed the same. That emotional glue is what held the first film together.
In the sequel, that glue is gone. The immortals barely spend any time together, and when they do, there’s no warmth or intimacy. Everyone feels isolated, going through the motions, waiting for their next action cue.
There’s no urgency in their mission, no moral quandary to solve, no meaningful change to pursue. It’s a movie filled with beautiful people doing violent things, but without a reason to root for them.
A Franchise Running on Fumes
By the time The Old Guard 2 reaches its climactic set piece—featuring Discord hijacking a nuclear facility in Indonesia—you’ll be more exhausted than exhilarated. Sure, the action is passable. The lighting is dramatic. The soundtrack thumps. But none of it carries any weight because the story doesn’t earn its stakes.
Even Mahoney’s direction, though competent, feels constrained by a script that’s more interested in setting up a third movie than delivering a satisfying second one. Characters are introduced and half-baked. Plot twists are dropped and forgotten. And the emotional beats, when they arrive, feel like placeholders.
In the end, it’s hard not to feel like this movie is just biding time until Netflix greenlights the next one.
Final Thoughts: Immortals Deserve More Than This
The Old Guard 2 isn’t a total disaster. It’s well-lit, decently acted, and boasts a few inspired moments. But it’s also emotionally hollow, narratively messy, and largely uninterested in what made the first film resonate. Instead of leaning into its rich themes—eternity, love, loss, betrayal—it tries to go bigger and louder, and ends up feeling smaller and quieter.
We don’t need every story to expand into a franchise. Sometimes, a good standalone is enough. And sometimes, even immortal warriors should be allowed to rest.If The Old Guard 3 does eventually arrive, let’s hope it remembers what made this team immortal in the first place: not their inability to die—but their ability to make us feel.
