Greenland 2: Migration – Movie Review

Greenland 2: Migration quickly ditches the much more interesting idea of showing the aftermath of a disaster movie in favor of yet another disaster movie.

Disaster movies have never really been my cup of tea. Not only do I just have to turn on the news nowadays if I want to watch a disaster, but disaster films usually end up being style over substance. They are usually more focused on showing large scale destruction or collapse of human society, leaving very basic character work and a plot that amounts to running from disasters and getting to a safe place. They can still be entertaining for the dopamine rush the CGI destruction provides, but they end up blending together in my memory after a while.

I had slight hope for Greenland 2: Migration, however, for two reasons. For one, the first movie showed signs of uniqueness within the usually stale genre, by focusing on the leadup to the world-ending event and how people react to it. Secondly, this film also seemed to boast a similarly fresh premise, as it was set after the disaster. So I hoped it would lay out what it feels like to try and rebuild a life after the apocalypse, something most disaster movies rarely do.

Initially, Greenland 2: Migration seems to follow up on that premise. We’re shown that life in the bunker is taking its toll on the people and how they struggle with taking in more survivors than they can provide for. And then about fifteen minutes in, the bunker is destroyed, the family escapes, and they now have to run from disasters and get to a safe place. Sound familiar? The film has now turned into a bog-standard disaster movie.

What’s frustrating is that even then the film still tries to adhere to its initial premise. The Garritys take several stops along the journey where they meet people who have adjusted to the post apocalyptic world the best they could. One scene that especially stuck with me was with one character that took up caring for the elderly with Alzheimer’s. These slower moments feel more character driven, and are where the film feels the most sincere.

The issue is that the structure of the movie doesn’t mesh with those slower moments. Greenland 2: Migration wants to keep moving along as it constantly reminds the audience that this family needs to reach what’s essentially the promised land. It even throws in an additional deadline towards the middle that I won’t spoil. That frantic nature is in direct conflict with the aforementioned slower, more humanity-focused moments, making the film feel too fast and too slow at the same time.

Thus, both the disaster aspect and the human aspect feel undercooked. Even looking past instances of wonky CGI (I’m just gonna assume the poor vfx artists were either underpaid again or replaced by AI), the bits of large scale destruction we get often feel more like background noise or obstacle course challenges. So the movie doesn’t even properly provide the dopamine rush that forms the baseline enjoyment for a disaster flick. In terms of the characters the Garritys meet, most of them feel terribly one-note. There’s one character that joins the Garritys in the third act, but instead of bringing new dynamics within the family, they barely even talk or do anything even up to the ending.

At the very least, Gerard Butler was the right choice to lead this sort of movie. He’s one of those actors, like Liam Neeson, that I’ve dubbed the “perfect dad actor.” He is often typecast as an action movie dad whose character amounts to being a dad that loves his family. However, for some reason his performance has a strange, magnetic energy that I never tire of. I might not even have known Butler’s character’s name until I went home and looked it up on Wikipedia, but I still couldn’t take my eyes off of him.

Sadly, Butler being effortlessly watchable doesn’t mean the whole movie’s the same. Greenland 2: Migration brings in some decent ideas, but feels the need to be a standard disaster movie. With how confused the film’s director is, I can’t help but feel the studio didn’t know what to do after the first movie. It’s understandable, but in that case I’d say having no sequel is preferable to having a forgettable one.

Greenland 2: Migration is now available to watch in U.S. theaters, in U.K. and Irish cinemas, and globally in theatres.