In her return to action, Thurman is pitted against Theron in “The Old Guard 2.” The two discuss the pains and pleasures of the genre.

Marvel has tricked the cinematic world into thinking that action movies should—and can effectively be—helmed by directors with little to no action experience. The latest example of this dreary 21st-century trend is The Old Guard 2,

For another, The Old Guard 2 is frustratingly — if also pointedly — rushed for a movie about people who’ve been alive for eons, and it never gives any of its characters the chance to meaningfully hash out how the bonds of friendship might pull tighter as they get twisted over the course of a few hundred decades.