It is not all that often that Netflix says they’re going to make a sequel to one of its original films, and then actually following through, but they did so with The Old Guard 2, the sequel to the 2020 action film starring Charlize Theron.
It’s terrible. Terribly in ways that represent sharp declines from the first film in both critic and audience reception on Rotten Tomatoes. You can see the difference clearly:
The Old Guard – 80% critic score, 71% audience score
The Old Guard 2 – 25% critic score, 42% audience score
Netflix or not, this is an absolutely wild drop between sequels of a series, something you rarely see in film, period. That’s a full 55% drop from critics and a 29% drop from audiences, as there is not much daylight between the two, both agreeing it’s terrible.
What on earth happened here? Charlize Theron is back kicking butt; the film added Uma Thurman with a sword for the first time since Kill Bill. How can you go wrong?
While most of the writers are the same, the chief difference here is the director. The original Old Guard was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, while The Old Guard 2, five years later, switched to Victoria Mahoney.
Prince-Bythewood was the director of the quite good The Woman King as well as Love and Basketball from way back in the day. Mahoney, instead, has only directed 1 or 2 episodes of a number of TV series, but this appears to be the first feature film she’s directed since a TV movie in 2014. Not that we can for sure lay all the blame at her feet, but it’s certainly a significant change.
The quality of the film has not stopped The Old Guard 2 from debuting at #1 on Netflix and staying there for a few days now. Charlize Theron remains a huge star, and the return of the film has even had the original movie place on the top 10 list despite being five years old. The interest is there.
Will the interest stay high? The first one did well and was well-received, but this one is a disaster, and it would be a surprise if a third film was greenlit after this, even with solid initial viewership. It is good that Netflix followed through on its sequel promise (we’re still waiting for Red Notice 2 and The Gray Man 2), but this could have gone better. Way better, it seems.
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