.

It’s happened, Hollywood has broken Kiki Layne.

At the very least they have made her bland and when you think about how brightly she shone in If Beale Street Could Talk back in 2018, then it’s the same thing.

In that film, which was her cinema debut, she was utterly magnificent. It seemed clear that she was going to be an exceptional figure in cinema but then the movie gods (presumably directors and casting agents) apparently had other ideas. It wasn’t immediate; she actually brought real emotion and an appealing disposition to her appearance in the first Old Guard movie, rising above the mediocre material. Sadly then they put her in Coming 2 America and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers and the weakness of the scripts and painful, laboured characterisation they were giving her started to win out. She was really good alongside Florence Pugh in Don’t Worry Darling but even there she was heavily marginalised in a part that was more of a plot device than a proper role. 

Now, returning to play immortal warrior Nile in the Old Guard sequel, she brings very little to the screen at all. It’s not her fault, she is clearly amazing; just not enough to yet again fight the nature of the movie they have put her in. 

She’s not the only one underserved here either. The first movie was not ground breaking but it was actually quite fun. This one ditches all of that for portentous frowning and cod mysticism. There are action scenes but they’re uninspiring and predictable. Across the last two decades Charlize Theron had moved so far from the corny Æon Flux but this springs her right back there in an instant. Chiwetel Ejiofor must be wondering how his career has ended up here and if you are going to cast Uma Thurman as a samurai sword wielding killer again you’ve really got to do more to honour that legacy. 

What’s worse the story, as much as it is, literally ends just as it gets going. Fifteen minutes before the end you realise that there’s a third movie coming and your heart sinks, because they have absolutely not earned it and there’s no resolution to be had here. Yeah, yeah, Theron’s crew have all been captured and a rescue mission is mounted with two enemies rapidly made allies but any love I had for this crowd has been worn away. I just don’t care.

Seriously, Kiki really deserves better.

.

.