The Old Guard 2 (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – Andy leads immortal warriors against a powerful enemy threatening their group. They grapple with the resurfacing of a long-lost immortal, complicating their mission to safeguard humanity.

My Take – Released in 2020 on Netflix, director Gina Prince-Blythewood‘s adaptation of author Greg Rucka and illustrator Leandro Fernández‘s Image Comics graphic novel series ‘The Old Guard‘ proved to be quite a hit for those eager for escapism.

Owing to its unique take on immortality, guns blazing action and slick humor, the film not just ended up becoming the streamer’s biggest launches to date, but also did quite a good job in setting up a potential action franchise. After all, who wouldn’t like to see Charlize Theron play an axe-wielding immortal warrior?

Now five years, a follow-up has finally arrived, with the same cast and a new director in the form of Victoria Mahoney (Yelling to the Sky), but disappointingly also without the predecessor’s charm.

Marred by troubled production, the highly anticipated sequel has the necessary action set pieces, a strong ensemble and the destination settings but it just lacks the fun and the soul of what made the original such a stand-out. Instead, it seems to be in a panicked rush to wrap things up and provide exposition upon exposition about its lore.

To make matters worse, the last act ends with a cliffhanger, that too without an official confirmation of a third installment, something that might leave most viewers baffled. And considering how poorly developed and confusingly plotted this one ended up being, viewers probably have already lost interest to see it to the end. Making it a swift savage franchise-killer.

The story pick up six months after the events of the first film and once again follows Andy/Andromache (Charlize Theron), who along with her fellow immortals Joe (Marwan Kenzari), Nicky (Luca Marinelli) and newest member Nile (KiKi Layne), is now working with ex-CIA James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and running mercenary operations to save mankind from major threats. Even as Andy is still grappling with her newfound mortality and her decision to exile fellow immortal Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) for betraying the group.

However, the stakes are fundamentally altered with the re-emergence of Andromache’s longtime immortal companion, Quynh (Veronica Ngô), who was finally saved from centuries in an Iron Maiden at the bottom of the ocean.

But weaponizing Quynh’s thirst for revenge upon the mortals that imprisoned her in a watery grave and Andy, who failed to find her after all this time, is a mysterious threat named Discord (Uma Thurman), who has not just the plans, but also the resources and firepower to bring the world and its immortal protectors to their knees.

Written by Greg Rucka and Sarah L. Walker, the film opens with a fun action sequence in which the group attempts to nab a shady arms dealer. But following that the narrative is never able to recaptures that energy again. Possessing a surprisingly cheap and drab look, the film instead is more devoted to dropping the characters into endless loops of moping about what it means to be mortal and/or immortal and the science behind why Andy lost her immortality power.

Sure, we eventually see its characters get into fights with anonymous henchmen, but none of the set pieces come close to the original, which saw director Gina Prince-Bythewood bring her magic and had a couple of memorable action sequences to balance out its slightly sketchy storytelling. Here, the action is simply choppy. For example, the particularly uninspired scene in which Andy and Quỳnh throw down in a narrow alleyway which seems to be shot inside a studio. The fight begins, unfolds, and ends inside a 10-foot radius.

We also can’t help but notice how the film’s central narrative fractures under the weight of two competing antagonists, one born of pathos and the other of plot necessity. On one hand, Quynh stands as the story’s authentic foe, her quest for vengeance a direct and deeply personal consequence of the lore’s brutal logic. Her rage is comprehensible, her pain is palpable, and her historical bond with Andy gives their conflict a genuine, tragic weight.

On the other, we had the tantalizing prospect of a showdown between Theron and Thurman, but it dissolves into an underdeveloped rivalry without much context. Their few shared scenes lack the charge of the Andy and Quynh dynamic. Ultimately, Discord’s presence serves only to dilute the narrative’s focus, pulling attention from the potent, character-driven conflict with Quynh toward a more generic, world-ending plot.

While Joe and Nicky remain the story’s unwavering emotional heart, their centuries-spanning love a warm, steadying presence. Yet their role this time around feels diminished, their interactions often confined to moments of levity that, while welcome, shrink their narrative footprint. And, as if that weren’t enough, the narrative has the nerve to end on a cliffhanger. If the first film represented the promise of early-stage streaming, the sequel has all the markings of a contemporary uninspired Netflix project.

Performance wise, Charlize Theron looks simply disengaged here. Though as always, she excels in the action sequences. KiKi Layne is practically catatonic as the already boring protégé. Uma Thurman seems to be having moments of slithering fun as the villain but she’s so sparingly used that her role is akin to a cameo. Veronica Ngô brings an enigmatic and charismatic turn despite her arc, like the entirety of the film, being rushed.

The considerable talents of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Henry Golding are largely squandered on characters who function as little more than elegant exposition machines. Comparatively, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli and Matthias Schoenaerts are decent enough when they’re allowed to focus. On the whole, ‘The Old Guard 2‘ is a clumsy action-fantasy sequel that is poorly developed and confusingly plotted.