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The Old Guard 2 is a long-awaited sequel to a rather decent Netflix action film, in which death is no longer the career setback it used to be.
Charlize Theron – still hot at nearly 50, but forever exhibiting questionable parenting values – returns as Andromache of Scythia – aka Andy, one of a rag-tag bunch of futuristic A-Team-style mercenaries who do nothing but go from job to job, killing bad guys and often getting bumped off themselves, although it doesn’t take long before they somehow come back to life.
On the plus side, this second movie is a bit shorter than the first one. Unfortunately, no-one involved has learned from its problems of having nothing but formulaic action, so much so that this feels more like a 12-certificate movie – just cutting away from anything that wouldn’t get shown on an afternoon TV movie – albeit with occasional bits of extra gore.
Again, I was thinking: Since the team has a mix of those who can and cannot die (itself, rather odd), why don’t the mortals wear body armour when fighting?
Again, fellow immortal Quynh (Veronica Ngo – The Creator) is looking for Andy, while Nile (KiKi Layne – Don’t Worry Darling) is dreaming about a mysterious woman played by Uma Thurman (also currently clogging up ITV’s schedule with Suspicion), called Discord. Pardon? Did they just pick a random social media platform and use that? Is she related to Twitter and Facebook?!
Meanwhile, every time someone references Quynh, it has to be spelt out as if the audience is stupid. As such, despite only running for 105 minutes, it still rambles on twice as long as it needs to!
For other stupidity, after some of the team storm a facility and kill its guards willy nilly, why does another guard try to stop them simply by THREATENING to shoot?! As a result he dies. Muggy bonehead!
Plus, everyone fights with everyone else, and if Uma’s such a big baddie, why is she barely in it?!
The Old Guard 2 offers nothing new, only a repeat of the tedious elements of the first one. I was going to suggest the script could’ve been written by AI… but no, that would still have come up with something more original(!)
I can’t imagine why it wasn’t available for review in advance.
Finally, The Old Guard 2 also teases a The Old Guard 3. Please don’t.
NOTE: There is NO mid- or post-credits scene.
The Old Guard 2 is on Netflix now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 105 minutes
Release date: July 2nd 2025
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Score: 1/10
Director: Victoria Mahoney
Producers: AJ Dix, David Ellison, Marc Evans, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Beth Kono, Charlize Theron
Screenplay: Greg Rucka, Sarah L Walker
Graphic novel series: Greg Rucka
Music: Ruth Barrett, Steffen Thum
Cast:
Andy: Charlize Theron
Nile: KiKi Layne
Booker: Matthias Schoenaerts
Joe: Marwan Kenzari
Nicky: Luca Marinelli
Copley: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Quynh: Veronica Ngo
Tuah: Henry Golding
Discord: Uma Thurman
Louis: Kamil Nozynski
Konrad: Slavko Sobin
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.