In 'The Old Guard 2,' Theron and Thurman get half a movie

About 80 minutes into “The Old Guard 2," I found myself wondering how the filmmakers were going to wrap things up.

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There were a lot of threads dangling with Charlize Theron’s gang of immortal warriors, split up and facing extinction, and she still had yet to face off with the new villain, Discord (apparently the first immortal), played by Uma Thurman. The promise of a showdown between The Bride and Furiosa may not justify the existence of this sequel, now streaming on Netflix, but it was something to look forward to nonetheless. And while they do fight, for a little, something even crazier happens not too long after: The movie ends or, rather, stops mid-climax. An ending was never part of the plan. This might be an attempt at a cheeky nod to the life of an immortal — what is an ending after all, I guess? But unlike the first film, which merely left the door open for the possibility of a sequel, “The Old Guard 2” cuts off mid-movie. Not only is there no option to “continue watching,” there's no promise we'll even get an “Old Guard 3.” Moviegoers endure a lot of partial stories in these days of franchise filmmaking, ever desperate for a builtin audience. With some, you know a resolution is coming at a later date, as with “Mi