Director – Victoria Mahoney, Screenplay – Greg Rucka & Sarah L. Walker, Story – Greg Rucka, Based on the Based on the The Old Guard Graphic Novels by Greg Rucka, Producers – A.J. Dix, Dana Goldberg, David Ellison, Marc Evans, Don Granger, Beth Kono & Charlize Theron, Photography – Barry Ackroyd, Music – Ruth Barrett & Steffen Thum, Visual Effects Supervisor – Charlie Iturriaga, Visual Effects – Image Engine (Supervisor – Andy Walker), Light (Supervisor – Antoine Moulineau), One of Us (Supervisor – Victor Tomi), Pixomondo (Supervisor – David Cunningham), Scanline VFX (Supervisor – Adam Balentine), Tryptyc (Supervisor – Leo Bovell) & WeFX Inc (Supervisors – Krik Brillon & Sam Javanrouh), Special Effects Supervisor – Uli Nefzer, Production Design – Paku Meduri. Production Company – Skydance/Denver and Delilah Productions.
Andy is adjusting to life as a mortal. She joins the other immortal mercenaries as they go into action in Split, Croatia. She is shocked to discover that her longtime friend Quynh who was buried in a coffin at sea has been discovered and freed. They meet but the situation between them is tense with Quynh bitter with resentment over having to endure five hundred years imprisonment while Andy enjoyed life as normal. Behind Quynh’s resurrection is Discord, the oldest immortal there is. Discord seeks to bring an end to the immortals and their interference in history. To this end, she sees Nile as key to her plan.
The Old Guard (2020), adapted from Greg Rucka’s six-issue comic-book The Old Guard (2017) at the behest of star Charlize Theron, was a modest hit. It came out during the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic and went directly to Netflix where it became the No 1 release in its first week and stayed in the Top 10 for some time thereafter. It received good reviews and even won the science-fiction community’s Hugo Award as Best Dramatic Presentation that year. The Old Guard 2 is a sequel.
I remained one of the naysayers when it came to The Old Guard. The plot came with a premise that had a lot of plausibility holes in its set-up and was frustrating in its lack of real explanations (which I discuss in the abovelisted review for the film). The action was passable but killed by dreary desaturated photography. I can only assume the reasons that it won the Hugo Award was because it was a flag bearer for contemporary progressive values – directed by an African-American woman and with a gay love interest at the centre of the story; it certainly can’t have been because of an original and outstanding story or even being a good film.
All of these same issues are present when it comes to The Old Guard 2. It reunites all of the cast and Greg Rucka with the exception of director Gina Prince-Bythewood who is replaced by another African-American woman Victoria Mahoney, a former actress – she played the immortal Queen Antinea in L’Atlantide (1992) – turned director. There are no more explanations to the plot, although the hard to accept aspect about the Old Guard altering the fate of humanity has been dropped – it is briefly mentioned only as something that the villainous Uma Thurman wants to bring an end to. The gay love story has been dropped too – the characters are there but pushed to the background. At most, you get the impression that Charlize Theron and Veronica Ngo were maybe an item without the film quite coming out and saying anything.
Charlize Theron as Andy
The plot this time has all the elements that should have worked. It brings Andy’s old friend Quynh back from her coffin and pits her and Uma Thurman’s oldest immortal as the nemeses of The Old Guard. It is next levelling of the original film’s set-up, introducing a nemesis that is their match and who poses a deadly threat to their extistence. Only it doesn’t quite work. The nemesis element is merely Charlize and Veronica glowering at one another and engaging in duels as Veronica spends the whole film flip flopping between being friend or foe. Uma Thurman doesn’t nearly get enough screentime for an actress of her stature and in fact ends up being overshadowed by Veronica Ngo. There’s a climactic confrontation between Uma and Charlize before the whole film ends on irresolution and we realise it was only set up for a further sequel.
There’s an explanation for why Charlize Theron ended up mortal that feels that it was a plucked out of the air piece of handwave about Charlize being cut by the youngest mortal Kiki Layne who now poses a threat to all of them. It is no more than plotting sleight of hand – the introduction of arbitrary rules for the sole reason of getting out of a plotting corner, but in a film where the basic set-up fails the essential suspense of disbelief test, it seems utterly arbitrary.
The way The Old Guard 2 plays out, it resembles nothing more than a routine direct-to-dvd/streaming action sequel. It is built around a series of fight set-pieces, which are competently delivered if unmemorable. (What made me hate the film more than anything is its’ willing to trash a classic E-type Jaguar, one of the great sports cars, within the first few minutes, something that should be considered a crime against culture). There is the same supporting action team who really do nothing much. There are no emotional sparks to the reconnection between Charlize Theron and Veronica Ngo, while Uma Thurman’s villain makes little distinction. And the biggest downer is the lack of a climax and the realisation that we have been hoodwinked into having to watch yet another sequel.
