The Old Guard 2 (2025) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

If you can remember the trends of 2020, you can also remember The Old Guard was one of the many popular films to exclusively be released on Netflix. With a compelling arc much different from the MCU, I was so down to see a continuation of this setting. The only takeaway was how long it took to wait.


PLOT


The 2025 sequel picks up immediately from the events of the first film. Andromache of Scythia still leads a group of immortals for black ops missions. With the help of mortal CIA operative Copley, the rest of the group includes: Yusuf/Joe, Nicky/Nicolo di Genova and the youngest of them, Nile Freeman. After a successful raid on a weapons cache in Split, Nile has a dream of another immortal who is under the alias Discord. According to the sage-immortal Tuah, she is older than Andy, making the first generation of their kind. He admits to have parted ways with her long ago, she has become an elusive arms dealer and stole archives from him. Joe then makes contact with the recently exiled Booker who wants to warn Andy of something he encountered. Rendezvousing in Rimini, he tells her Quinyh has been free from imprisonment after 500 years and wants to reunite with her. In Rome where she was buried alive, Qunyh expresses resentment towards for choosing to stop searching for her and choosing to live her life. During their quarrel, Discord, the one who freed Qunyh in the first place, would confront Nile and address she is the last of their kind, proven with matching birthmarks. Tuah shares a theory with Booker that the last immortal could take away the immortality from another and anyone who lost it can regain it by another wounded who can transfer the power to whoever they choose. Booker proves the first half of the theory by getting himself injured when sparring with Nile. Later on, Copley gets intel that Qunyh has control of a nuclear facility in South Tangerang intended to irradiate the area in order to lure them out. The whole group goes in with no other choice and as they defend themselves from mercenaries, Booker sacrifices himself to save Andy, completing the transfer of his immortality to her. Nile would injure Qunyh and take away her immortality in a fight between them, but she would be sudbued & captured by Discord including the rest of the guys. After Andy finds Qunyh again and convinces her to release the detonator, she has her first battle with Discord who has revealed to have lost her mortality, intending to force Nile to pass on the immortality of the whole group to her. She is able to retreat by stabbing Andy in the heart, knowing it'd slow her down. The film ends with Andy & Qunyh agreeing to work together to save everyone.


THOUGHTS


I had a blast with the first film, which was a no brainer for me to onboard once the production of this sequel finally came about. I can't exactly say this is immediately better because you can sense the rush that was done overall. In one case, you can say that director Victoria Mahoney and cowriter Sarah L Walker made a solid action flick on its own, but in an ongoing narrative, its kinda flat for coming off as filler for a finale we're not even sure when that'll happen. The action scenes are well edited, but it's kinda 50/50 on how there is time put for the new and old characters. Now, i do enjoy the chemistry put Marwan Kezari & Luca Marinelli as Joe & Nicky because they remain a well made match for each other, but there is nothing else to explore about them sadly. I don't even see an improvement towards Nile per se because she is a living macguffin and KiKi Layne makes her come off as a bystander that happens to take action. She is self aware, but to a point since she was clueless of the birthmark and didn't seem to think about telling anyone about her dream of Discord until she became a problem. I normally enjoy Matthias Schoenarts for the most part, but Booker redeeming himself through a sacrifice was something I saw coming a mile away because I don't know what else he could've done to be forgiven by his peers. Chiwetel Ejiofor is still interesting in making Copley a loyal ally, but he should not ever take part of the missions he sets up since he has no advantage compared to his new friends. So when he gets abducted as well, it's totally on him. I do think it makes sense for the immortals to have historians, but having Henry Golding do all the exposition lore as Tuah is disappointing because I feel like he can do more than that. If we get a third one, I hope he does better in defending himself. The big strength of this movie that kept me interested was the two sides of the coin between Andy and Discord. Charlize Theron still owns it in portraying Andy as the pragmatic leader who does her best to think ahead, but also tries to take value with the given time she's got left before regaining her advantage. Seeing her try to keep it together is what brings the movie full circle that there will always be consequences in the choices you make unless you can still maintain the compassion that drives you. Because she keeps going, she is able to defy the odds for the most part. The other side of the coin is Discord and based on how Uma Thurman portrays her, she is rotten to the core because she is so greedy that she doesn't give any meaning to her life, as she spends more time keeping something she lost the privilege to keep. The fact she survived this chapter implies she could be very OP if her plans go accordingly, should we see her again. What kept me onboard was the return of Quynh, the closest friend she ever had due to what they have in common that is their immortality. I knew it was gonna be quite the baggage and I think that delivered. Veronica Ngo does a solid job depicting her as one out of time and doesn't know who to blame for all she lost. She wants to blame Andy for giving up, but didn't yet understand she wouldn't get to live her life either if she wasted her life as such. You could say that makes their sisterly love strong, but a cost the latter wasn't willing to cope with. She comes around in forgiving her by the end not because the plot demands it as she lost her immortality as well, but a part of caught on to maybe she would've done the same in not looking forever. Now that they're on the same page, they're gonna kick a whole lot of ass to save their friends should we see them again. I'm not even sure how Quynh still remembers how to fight after drowning for 500 years, but it's a good thing she still got it after being free. To wrap up, The Old Guard 2 is one of those sequels that are decent fun, but don't stick the complete landing when it maters most. if you got Netflix and enjoyed the previous one, good luck with this.