‘Greenland 2: Migration’ Review: Good Post-Apocalyptic Thriller, Bad Movie About Greenland
Ric Roman Waugh’s “Greenland” films are noteworthy for two reasons. First, they’re slightly better than most late-era Gerard Butler thrillers, and second, they don’t really take place in Greenland. The first film was about Butler and his family trying to get to Greenland because a comet struck the planet, and Greenland had the only underground bunker that could withstand the apocalypse. “Greenland 2: Migration” begins with that bunker collapsing, which forces Butler and his family to trek across post-apocalyptic Europe.
I guess “Mostly Not Greenland” would be a bad title for a post-apocalyptic thrill ride, but to be fair, calling it “Greenland” isn’t exactly 100% pure adrenaline. If anything it almost sounds like a documentary, which may be why Donald Trump is so obsessed with Greenland these days. Maybe he saw the first one and thought it was real. Maybe he’ll watch the second and decide to conquer France, since that’s where Butler & Co. are headed now. You see, the biggest chunk of the planet-killing comet landed off the Mediterranean coast, and there’s a theory that the impact site is now paradise on Earth. As if Nice wasn’t nice enough already.
The first “Greenland” was a worst-case-scenario allegory for climate change, but the message was thin enough that it never got in the way of Waugh’s pulse-pounding survival theatrics. Which is a generous way of saying the message barely came across. The new one tries even harder to be relevant: “Greenland 2” literally puts the word “migration” in the title, and it depicts Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin and Roman Griffin Davis as a family of immigrants braving treacherous waters, dangerous borders and sinister bureaucratic military goons in their pursuit of a better life.
It’s not subtle filmmaking, but that’s not necessarily a problem, it’s just a statement of fact. Movies don’t have to be subtle, they just have to be convincing. “Greenland 2” is almost convincing. The sidelining or, even worse, the frequent, violent deaths of most of the non-white characters has an unfortunate effect, which supports an ugly interpretation that immigration is only okay when immigrants are American families — with, admittedly, a very, very Scottish father. Anyone else? Not so much, I guess. Oh “Greenland 2: Migration,” you almost made a point about immigration. (You made no point whatsoever about Greenland.)
Still, Ric Roman Waugh gets a lot of exciting set pieces out of this sequel. Deadly cave-ins, intense shootouts, suspenseful aquatic disasters. The highlight is when Butler & Co. have to walk across a chasm using a flimsy rope bridge and off-the-rack ladders tied together with rags. Waugh fills the screen with desperate people, probably in more distress than our heroes, as they frantically try to save their own lives when a gust of wind kicks up. It’s convenient, of course, that the makeshift bridge only falls apart after the protagonists of this movie show up, but if our heroes crossed a deadly ravine without incident that wouldn’t have been worth filming. Come on, audience… do you want to see Gerard Butler almost die for your amusement or don’t you?
The despair that made the original “Greenland” such a gut punch is missing in “Greenland 2.” I guess years of surviving the apocalypse makes it easier for people to deal with life-or-death problems without getting all worked up over it. In the place of despair, our characters now express grave determination in the face of inevitable danger. Their trudging, brutal journey may even be a metaphor for traversing the Inferno itself, on their way to Paradiso. Maybe they’ll make it, maybe they won’t, but either way it’s a little easier to embrace “Greenland 2” as a metaphor for dying than as an inspiration for living.
In any case, Ric Roman Waugh crams a lot of production value onto the screen, even if some of the more epic shots in “Greenland 2” are just reused VFX from the first one. There are moments of wonder. Sometimes it’s genuinely exciting. Meanwhile, Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin bring some real feeling into their quieter scenes, imbuing “Greenland 2” with some recognizable humanity. The script by Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling asks considerably less of Roman Griffin Davis, but when it’s finally his turn to take a stab at profundity, he does break the skin.
These “Greenland” films may not always have a coherent point, but when they focus on the nuts and bolts of survival and the toll that surviving takes on these characters, they’re efficient, effectively crafted genre pictures. Like the original, “Greenland 2: Migration” wants you to take its characters and story seriously, and for the most part that’s possible. These movies are, despite their shortcomings, pretty good. They just aren’t great. And they have almost nothing to do with Greenland.
“Greenland 2: Migration” heads to theaters on Friday.
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