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Considering what a full-on action queen she is, Charlize Theron has been underserved by the movie biz. Just on the basis of past slammers like the epochal "Mad Max: Fury Road" and the whomping "Atomic Blonde" (with its tremendous, 10-minute bash-and-crash centerpiece scene), she has long deserved her own action franchise. "The Old Guard," drawn from a series of graphic novels by Greg Rucka and illustrator Leandro Fernandez, could've been it. The first film in the projected series, released on Netflix in 2020, drew a solid audience in the homebound depths of the COVID lockdown, and with an obvious sequel tease at the end of the picture, you might have figured it wouldn't take five years to assemble a followup.

But it did, and now here we have "The Old Guard 2," which, you may not be delighted to know, is itself a setup for another film, "O.G. 3," which might or might not ever get made (it'll depend on the reception this picture receives). The movie is, by definition, a middling affair, starting out with a reprise of the first film's epilogue and then pointing us toward a narrative destination we may never be able to reach. Could "O.G. 2" stand on its own as a series wrap-up, if that became necessary? Mmm ... maybe.

The good news about the movie is that Theron is back in kickass mode as Andy, the immortal soldier (ancient name: Andromache of Scythia) who has dedicated her never-ending life to helping normal humans stop screwing up their world. As you'd imagine, this is a never-ending job.

Andy is still accompanied by the same crew of fellow immortals we met in the first film: the ex-marine Nile (KiKi Layne) and the centuries-old duo of Nicky (Luca Marinelli) and Joe (Marwan Kenzari). (It's an indication of the movie's grown-up sensibility that not only are Nicky and Joe a gay couple -- a fact that goes unremarked -- but that Andy also has a same-sex relationship in her past.) In addition, once again, the all-too-human ex-CIA operative Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is still in attendance, smoothing the way for the team's various missions. Not entirely on hand this time, though, is Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), the fifth member of Andy's battle ensemble, who was sentenced to exile for his betrayal of the team in the previous film. Returning to the tale, though, is Quynh (Veronica Ngo), an early team member who was drowned as a witch 500 years ago and has spent the centuries since locked in an iron maiden at the bottom of the ocean, where, in classic immortal fashion, she has been dying and returning to life and dying again, over and over. Quynh is now back, and she's pissed.

Andy and company are a world-weary bunch -- they've seen it all and are now a little bored by it all. ("I'd love an expiration date," one of them says.) This is a problem: We become a little bored by them after a while, growing weary of their moping and sighing. (Theron, a performer made for leaping and face-kicking, is especially wasted in this downbeat mode.) The picture gets a revivifying infusion of energy with the arrival of a new character, an immortal historian named Tuah (Henry Golding). But another late-inning addition to the proceedings -- a mysterious character called Discord (Uma Thurman), the first immortal, now back on the scene and looking for trouble -- doesn't quite pay off in the major way you might expect from a confrontation involving Theron and the woman who once mowed down swarms of assailants in the "Kill Bill" movies.

The movie has story problems (the ambiguity of the characters' immortality, for example -- sometimes they can't be killed, sometimes they can). But those are minor annoyances in a pulp exercise like this. What really weakens the picture is its lackluster direction by TV veteran Victoria Mahoney. The first movie's director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, has a knack for action choreography that would have come in handy in this film -- which is short on sizzle and blunted by dull sets in the second half of the film (key action is staged in what look like warehouses). Then there's the matter of closure: The final scene in the film might as well have "To Be Continued" affixed to it. But how long will fans be willing to wait?

To find out more about Kurt Loder and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.

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