The Old Guard 2 - A Rather Disappointing Sequel that Was Just a Filler for a Yet Confirmed Third Movie

Yesterday was kind of unusual for Netflix to release a new major movie since they normally would do it on Friday. I think it has got to do with its competitor releasing their own original as well on the same day (which made me a bit upset cause I had to choose which one to see first). Ultimately I decided to see this film cause I was already excited about seeing the action once again. OK let's get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Six months after the event of the first movie, Andy (Charlize Theron - Fast X, Long Shot etc) together with Nile (KiKi Layne - Don't Worry Darling, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers etc), Joe (Marwan Kenzari - Ghosted, Murder on the Orient Express etc), Nicky (Luca Marinelli - Diabolik etc) and ex CIA Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor - Venom: The Last Dance, The Lion King 2019 remake etc) were still working on saving the world from various bad guys. After one of their latest mission, they realized that it might be related to another immortal. Andy decided to seek the help from her old friend Tuah (Henry Golding - Another Simple Favor, Snake Eyes: G. I. Joe Origins etc) who disclosed the info on the immortal called Discord (Uma Thurman - Down a Dark Hall, The Truth About Cats & Dogs etc). 

To make things worse, Andy's old lover Quynh (Van Veronica Ngo - The Creator etc) resurfaced after 500 years trapped and was being vengeful towards her. To fight off against Discord, Andy and her friends, including their previously exiled team member Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts - Amsterdam etc) had to fight off against the large army of enemies.

So what would happen to them? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

During the early part of this movie when Andy her team were fighting off against the bad guys, I thought it was pretty entertaining. The action sequence was quite well done to my opinion with plenty of cool fight choreography. I was still amazed by Charlize Theron's agility in this movie and frankly majority of the interesting action scenes involved her, with occasionally from her other friends. However, I did feel that there were not as many actions as I had hoped for. 

When I reached the finale fight scene, it suddenly hit me that the film would not have enough time to have proper conclusion. And turned out it indeed have a cliffhanger ending and would have to be concluded in the subsequent movie. To me it was rather upsetting cause I would rather have it ending properly here and if they want to make another film, they could do it later (based on how well this movie is going to be received). By the time I wrote this post, there was no news yet of the third one in development and sadly critics were not too impressed, which was certainly not a good sign. I think if they wanted to conclude in another film, they should have shot them back to back, or just simply finish in 1 movie even if it's going to be a long one. 

This sequel was directed by Victoria Mahoney in only her second feature film after the critically acclaimed Yelling to the Sky back in 2011. It was based on screenplay by Sarah Walker (co-creator of Wonderland TV series and writer for several series) and Greg Rucka the creator of The Old Guard comic/graphic novel. I have no major comments on the writing, except that the story was very standard and there was no strong emotions felt (not even during a supposedly emotional moment). The existence of my home town Jakarta and its neighboring city Serpong at first I thought was fun but ended up felt ridiculous. The cast particularly Theron and Layne were pretty decent but a bit disappointed on Henry Golding's character who was either too uninterestingly portrayed or poorly written. But Uma Thurman was still OK, while the rest seemed to be given less screen time and did not provide deep attachment.

In the end this was supposed to be an entertaining sequel to a film that I really liked 5 years ago. But combination of too little action, less interesting story and the non conclusion made this one a disappointment. The only thing that at least were fun to me was the action in the beginning, the fight involving Andy in the middle and the finale fight. Now I am left wondering whether we are going to see the conclusion to this story. So if you are interested in just watching Charlize Theron kick-ass again, then I think you would enjoy this one. However if you do not want to risk seeing something with possibly no proper ending, better wait until there is confirmation of a third movie before watching this.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars