The Struggle of Sequelitis

There was a time where it felt like Charlize Theron was going to be the next big action star. The actress, who had spent the 2000s playing the “it girl” in romantic comedies and other lighthearted fare, reinvented herself with dramatic roles in the early 2010s, with Young Adult becoming a key turning point for her. But it was 2014’s Mad Max: Fury Road that really showed the world what she could do. That performance, as Furiosa, made everyone sit up and take notice, calling her a real “bad ass”.

From there she took on roles in the Snow White and the Huntsman films, The Fast and the FuriousStarted as a film about undercover policing in the illegal street-racing community, this series has grown to encompass a number of different genres and become one of the most bankable franchises in the world. productions, and Atomic Blond, becoming an “it girl” of a different sort: the female action hero. People were primed for her to get her own franchise, one where she could lead while kicking ass all over the screen. It seemed like, for a little while, that franchise might stem from The Old Guard, the NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it). action movie based on the Greg Rucka comic book series of the same name. That first film was well received when it came out in 2020, and had all the makings of becoming a long-running film franchise.

And then nothing else came of it for four years. While Netflix greenlit a sequel in 2021, and production wrapped on the film in 2022, but then it sat in a can, unreleased and ignored for years. Everyone wondered what happened. Why did Netflix shelve the film? It couldn’t have been because of COVID since the movie was finished around the time the lockdown ended. Something must have made the streamer decide to sit on the film instead of releasing it and everyone that had seen the first film wondered why… right up until the film came out and we had our answers: the film is bad. Just plain bad. And then you had to wonder how Netflix greenlit the production at all.

The movie picks up shortly after the events of the first film with Andromache (Charlize Theron) and her team of immortal warriors – KiKi Layne as Nile Freeman, Marwan Kenzari as Yusuf “Joe” Al-Kaysani, and Luca Marinelli as Nicolò “Nicky” di Genova – working with their CIA handler, James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), as they take down a rich and powerful gun runner. On their break after a successful mission the team splits up, heading out to enjoy themselves. Except Joe decides to venture out alone instead of sticking with his lover, Nicky, and this leads Nicky and Nile to follow him to see what’s up.

What they find is that Joe has been visiting with their exiled former teammate Sébastien "Booker" Le Livre (Matthias Schoenaerts), and also that Booker has apparently been kidnapped. The three report to Andy, and together they track down and grab Booker, who is allowed back into the fold. But Booker informs them that he was taken by Andy’s former lover, Quỳnh (Veronica Ngô), who was thought dead and lost in the ocean hundreds of years before. Somehow she’s back, and whoever found her and dragged her up set her on a mission of revenge against our heroes, and this mission might just spell the end of the team.

The film starts itself off on the wrong foot and really never recovers. Because it had been five years since the first movie came out (with this sequel arriving in 2025), fans of the first film likely wouldn’t remember everything that happened in that movie. They’re immortal warriors, centuries old, and sometimes they fight for humanity. That’s all I remembered going in, so it was a struggle to get back up to speed with these characters because so many details had been forgotten in that time. Had this film come out two years after the original, like was originally planned, maybe less would need to have been said, but the film does nothing to get you back up to speed with the story and the characters, dropping you in and forcing you to catch up.

I don’t need my hand held during films, but I would like a little time with the characters before their new story starts to remember why I liked them and The Old Guard 2 puts in none of that effort. Characters don't talk about their pasts, they don’t spend much time trying to bond, and they barely even acknowledge any previous connections they had from the first film. As soon as they head out on their vacation, which quickly becomes a mission about Booker, Quỳnh, and the person behind the scenes pulling the strings (Discord, played by Uma Thurman), any chance at bonding with these characters is thrown right out the window. It’s like if a Fast and Furious movie started off in the middle of a heist and didn’t let us spend time with the characters drinking beer and talking about “mi familia” first. It just wouldn’t work.

But then the film also struggles because its main threat is never clearly defined. Discord is more a concept than a character, a shadowy figure behind the scenes who talks in half-truths and vague statements, all while seemingly being eight steps ahead of everyone else. She’s both barely sketched out but also has everything planned out that she can pull off her plan against our heroes without a hitch. She’s too powerful, but too vague, to work as a villain in any context, and that’s especially the case here when we also barely remember our heroes and don’t know why we should care about anything.

All of this creates a film that constantly moves but feels like it has no momentum. The Old Guard 2 is the rare film that is constantly pushing, constantly working on its plot (which is stupid and full of contrivances, let me just state), that still somehow feels like it’s moving at a leaden pace. The characters run around a lot, doing random action set pieces that feel like they’re done simply for the sake of, but nothing is ever really accomplished. It’s all padding, a waiting game until we can get to the final climax of the film where the story finally really kicks in… only for it to then end on a cliffhanger.

That is the really galling part of this movie: not only is it bad, but it also thought it was good enough that it warranted being told in two parts. And bear in mind, only the second film was greenlit; the third wasn’t part of the contract, so they ended this on a cliffhanger without even knowing if their third film was going to get made. Sure, the first film was a decent enough hit on Netflix to warrant a sequel, but The Old Guard wasn’t The Matrix. It wasn’t good enough to immediately green light two sequels that could be filmed back-to-back. There was no guarantee a third film would ever get made, and to end the film on a cliffhanger (one that, without spoiling anything major about the story, leaves the film in an incomplete state) is utterly idiotic.

Needless to say, no one should expect a third film from this franchise. The second film was poorly received, with most critics calling it “tedious” and “inferior to its predecessor”. The likelihood of a third film coming out is about as good as Bloodshot ever getting a direct sequel. Or John Carter. Or Conan 2011. These are all films that overestimated their audience’s desire for further films in the franchises, and all of them flopped. The Old Guard 2 is a massive flop, one that shouldn’t have been allowed to live. Whatever happened on this production (the director changed, and an additional script writer was brought in as well, presumably to try and salvage the movie), it probably would have been better if Netflix didn’t fund this movie at all.

The first The Old Guard is fun, albeit slight, and probably could have stood on its own. But with this sequel, the whole franchise is tainted. Thankfully it seems like Theron at least was able to weather this film’s failure, with more Fast and Furious, as well as The Odyssey and Apex as action movies in her future. She’ll be fine, even if The Old Guard never will.