Greenland 2: Migration

Greenland 2: Migration
Starring Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roman Griffin Davis, Amber Rose Revah
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh

The natural disaster subgenre has had some major hits in history - "The Day After Tomorrow," "Deep Impact," "Armageddon" and "Dante's Peak" being some of them - while others ("2012," "Moonfall") aren't as good. Yet there's something they all have in common: they don't do sequels. Usually, the destruction of the world is the definitive end, leaving no room for another go-around on the big screen. 2020's "Greenland" felt like one such disaster movie - it met its criteria, the survivors made it to their safe zone, and the comet hit...bing, bang, boom. A sequel wasn't needed, nor was it on anyone's minds, let alone six years later. Yet, "Greenland 2: Migration" is here, and while it's refreshing to see what happens to survivors after the world ends, it becomes a formulaic post-apocalyptic road trip movie with little character development. 

Five years after the Clarke comet struck Earth and destroyed most of civilization, John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) and now-teenage son Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis) are living in an underground bunker in Greenland with other survivors. Yet after the comet hit the Earth endured severe damage, and earthquakes and other natural disasters run rampant, resulting in the bunker collapsing after a localized earthquake. The Garritys and other survivors manage to make it out of the bunker and head to the crater site where Clarke crashed, believing enough time has passed where the land will include flourishing life again. Along the way they run into friend and foe that both helps and hinders their journey, with the hope of making it there and finding what they believe to be true will be true.

There's credit where credit is due, and having a sequel of a natural disaster movie is a choice. Movies like these never really focus on what happens years after the cataclysmic event, so it was an interesting premise to see how everyone is surviving. Sadly, "Greenland 2" becomes just as formulaic as the first, with no characterization other than the desire to survive. The first film was a great blend of family drama and adventure, and here there's just adventure with some drama thrown in that feels completely wasted.

Speaking of wasted, that's what Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin are here - wasted talent. They are so bland and unbelieving as a couple it's a shame because they were so good in the first. "Migration" just repeats beats over and over, going from one destination to another, as they run into old friends, new friends, and new enemies in the process. 

What saves this film is two things: first is the runtime. Normally, a disaster film runs about two hours plus, but here it's a scant 98 minutes, which is just enough to have some enjoyment in the movie and not wishing you were gouging your eyes out due to boredom. The second is the action, particularly a tense scene where the family traverses a rickety bridge over the former English Channel that also relies on the disaster tropes: bad things happen, but of course they survive it.

While it offers something different in giving a sequel that follows survivors years after a world-ending event, "Greenland 2: Migration" is also incredibly formulaic and simplistic in its story, leaving little to the imagination and no need to find out what happened to said survivors.

The Score: C+