Greenland 2: Migration Movie Review:

Some apocalyptic thrillers thrive on atmospherics over special effects and rely on the ‘less-is-more’ magic and actors' capabilities to capture the audience's attention. There is always a sense of lingering dread in those movies rather than the actual threat itself, and they treat the end of the world as an existential crisis. The fear factor lies in the silence rather than the sound of falling skyscrapers. Films such as Children of Men and It Comes At Night are classic examples. On the other hand, there are doomsday survival thrillers that are content at being loud and lousy. The Greenland franchise leans heavily into the latter category, prioritising spectacle over subtlety. While cheesy and operatic, the first part in the franchise still manages to deliver some cheap thrills and engage the audience thanks to the two strong performances from Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin. While Butler and Baccarin are still game for the asteroids and the apocalypse, the second part suffers from an identity crisis from which it never recovers. Greenland 2: Migration operates on autopilot for the most part and, unfortunately, gives away its destination way too early.

Director: Ric Roman Waugh

Cast: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roman Griffin Davis

We are back with the Garrity family and the rest, whose days at the underground bunker are numbered, thanks to the bunker’s foundation showing signs of falling apart under the sheer strain of the tremors. They must venture out and find a better, more inhabitable place before everything ends for good. However, the task is not easy with the Clarke comet continuing to fall in different parts of the world, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Greenland 2: Migration also requires the audience to suspend their disbelief, what with the sheer number of near-fatal encounters the Garrity family goes through. Greenland 2 often tries to ground the characters in a sense of reality, but it becomes hard to invest in their plight when it often jumps from one potential death scenario to another, where they celebrate a special occasion with an old friend. When things fall apart around them, how can the characters be so emotionally agile as to move past near-death trauma in a matter of moments? The film tells its story at such a breakneck pace that it does not matter even when it pauses to offer a sense of self-reflection and introspection. When the characters talk about their perilous situation, it feels more like an act of sharing their anguish and not a visible expression of their deep trauma. It feels more manufactured than felt. There is also the idea of a civilisation falling apart amid the apocalypse, but the film never delves deep into this to make it a compelling aspect of its story, in the way other classics in the genre do.

Much like the first film, what makes parts of the journey rather engaging are the performances by Butler and Baccarin. It is amazing to see their commitment to the characters even as the makers of the franchise throw everything at us, including falling comets, gigantic ocean waves gobbling up everything that gets in the way, and edifices falling like ninepins. Unfortunately, the makers do not give the Garritys enough agency in the story to make us more invested in the journey. Often, they are like mere passengers in a sinking boat, being tossed about and swept along by the whirlwind of a plot.

The journey should be more important than the destination in such films. However, because the film is so hellbent on spectacle, it is hard to care for the journey, and as it reveals its destination too early, the act of reaching there becomes a foregone conclusion. It has all the tension of watching pedestrians cross a bridge. Suffice to say, the idea of the ending for the second part should have been the climax of the first part, and then we might have had a more compelling film. Even the Julia Roberts starrer Leave the World Behind, which borrows the best traits of the aforementioned classics, earns its runtime and rewards our patience in a better way. It is a disappointing reality check for those hoping that the franchise would evolve.