Greenland 2: Migration
Cast of Characters:
John Garrity – Gerard Butler
Allison Garrity – Morena Baccarin
Nathan Garrity – Roman Griffin Davis
Dr. Casey Amina – Amber Rose Revah
Mackenzie Matthews – Sophie Thompson
Director – Ric Roman Waugh
Writer – Mitchell LaFortune & Chris Sparling
Based on characters created by Chris Sparling
Producer – Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Sebastien Raybaud, John Zois, Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, Ric Roman Waugh & Brendon Boyea
Distributor – Lionsgate
Running Time – 98 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some strong violence, bloody images, and action.
Five years after arriving at the Greenland bunker, John Garrity (Gerard Butler) has settled into the world’s “new normal” along with his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) and their 15-year-old son Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis). Allison has joined what appears to be the bunker’s version of a HOA, where the committee squabbles over their ever-increasing shortage of supplies and whether or not to accept refugees requesting help in light of said shortages. Meanwhile, John works as an engineer on site, making periodic expeditions outside to check for supplies. It’s these ventures, however, that has led to quite the bothersome cough for John, which, of course, worries Allison, but he shrugs it off as being just fine.
Oh, is it, John?
Well, turns out shortages are the least of the Greenland community’s worries, ’cause faster than you can start crooning out the opening line of Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, disaster strikes again, forcing everyone to abandon the bunker. With their way of life devastated once again, the Garrity family must band together and brave the hazardous elements in order to find a new home.
Over the past five years or so, action star extraordinaire Gerard Butler has seemed to have been crowned the king of January movies, and so far the offerings have been a mixed bag. 2018’s The Vanishing was a grim psychological thriller that was far more effective than you’d expect from a film dumped immediately on streaming. 2023’s Plane was a fun, taut, little action thriller carried mostly on the strength of its buddy dynamic between Butler and co-star Mike Colter. The Den of Thieves films, on the other hand, failed to live up to their potential.
Now, we have Greenland 2: Migration, which marks the fourth pairing between Butler and director Ric Roman Waugh, following Angel Has Fallen, Kandahar and this film’s 2020 predecessor. The first film was one of 2020’s most pleasant surprises. At first, I rolled my eyes at the thought of the star of Geostorm teaming up with his Angel Has Fallen director to deliver another disaster flick. However, Greenland ended up being a thoughtful, poignant take on the disaster genre that grounded its disaster spectacle in a human drama that focused more on society’s reaction to the event more than the event itself. Not only that, even with the whole COVID debacle banishing the film to streaming on HBO Max in America, it still managed to pull in over $50 million at the international box office on only a $35 million production budget.
So, no surprise, we have a sequel.
For a first film that ended with a satisfyingly hopeful conclusion, one wonders what more could be added to the story by Waugh and his writers, Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling. The answer, unfortunately, is not much, as the first film’s conclusion is completely upended for more of the same disaster spectacle. This time, however, it’s missing the emotional punch brought by the character drama that made the first film so good. Migration’s main issue is repetition. Cue the tsunami. Escape. Cue the comets. Escape. Cue the earthquake. Escape. That’s fine if spectacle is your aim. Independence Day, for example, is nothing more than pure spectacle schlock, but it knows what it is and succeeds at being that. Migration wants the character-driven weight of its predecessor, but its insistence on hurrying to the next disaster event leaves those character moments underdeveloped. Without giving those moments time to breathe, we just end up with a series of repetitive sequences that eventually becomes tedious.
Convenience is another problem that plagues the film. To say the Garrity family catch a lucky break would be putting it mildly. Deus ex machina should be the film’s top-billed star for as much as its featured here, and its that far-fetched level of convenience that deflates much of the film’s tension. Why should stakes matter and why should we need to worry about the Garrity’s survival if the film repeatedly shows they’re just gonna get bailed out at the last minute? Old acquaintences pop up to give them plenty of supplies and a fully gassed-up vehicle (where everyone’s getting these supplies so easily is another conversation starter on its own). Seemingly dangerous people shoot at them only to reveal they just want company at dinner. And one extremely stubborn military leader who refuses to help the Garritys has a sudden “Come to Jesus” moment after Butler essentially says pretty please, and – voila! Mind changed.
Quite frankly, this family survives so many close calls, it’d get even Richard Dawkins to fall on his knees and proclaim the existence of God.
Additionally, one pivotal aspect of the Garrity’s son Nathan established in the first film was that he was diabetic (Roger Dale Floyd from the first film is replaced by Jojo Rabbit’s Roman Griffin Davis). That provided a major source of tension for Greenland, but in Migration it’s barely an afterthought. While there is a moment of Allison telling her son to grab as much insulin as he can during the Greenland evacatution, that key character detail is abandoned faster than the characters fleeing the bunker, ’cause I guess… maybe radiation exposure cures him?
That’s not to say the entire film is void of life. While not good, it’s not terrible either. Waugh knows how to fashion a thrilling disaster sequence, and as far as the action goes, it delivers. One effectively nerve-racking moment, in particular, involving Butler and his family crossing makeshift ladders straddled across deadly precipices serves as the film’s highlight.
As for Gerard Butler, he brings his usual sturdy presence to the proceedings, and the cast as a whole is fine. The problem isn’t them, it’s the material. Butler’s effort is evident here, bringing the same level of earnest engagement that he brought to John in the first film. Plus, it’s always refreshing to see him take a break from his typecast machismo to play more realistic, vulnerable types like we got in said first film as well as The Vanishing and Plane.
Closing Statement: Greenland 2: Migration features another solid turn from Gerard Butler and a few exciting action sequences from director Ric Roman Waugh, but disappointingly comes up short in matching the emotional core of its predecessor.
Silver Screen Fanatic’s Verdict: I give Greenland 2: Migration a C (★★).
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