Greenland 2: Migration

Cert – Recommended ages 13+, Run-time – 1 hour 37 minutes, Director – Ric Roman Waugh

After surviving a suspected world-ending comet, the Garrity family (Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roman Griffin Davis) must leave the safety of a collapsed Greenland bunker to search for a new safe place on what remains of Earth.

For the convenience of Greenland 2: Migration the world-ending comet in the first film was only 70% world ending. What remains of the world, largely Europe, has seen society decline, and given almost everyone a gun. A series of grey, misty landscapes, and gunshots, are explored by the Garrity family (Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roman Griffin Davis) who having survived the apocalypse in a tense race against time must venture out into uncertain air and terrain to try and find a new place of safety when the Greenland bunker, housing some of the best, most capable minds to rebuild when things are better up top, collapses.

The journey towards somewhere that’s green – although not quite the kind you’d find in Better Homes And Gardens magazine – sees them venture the not-quite-wasteland and harsh weather conditions that have been created by the comet with bursts of tension rather than the continuous race of the first film. Migration is a film of individual characters and situations, the post-disaster movie. The individual segments and chapters start to make the joins and divides between them visible.

Having been, as many were, pleasantly surprised by the suspense of Greenland when it landed on streaming during the pandemic I sat often wanting to like the sequel, which arrives in the same form in the UK having failed to make back even half its $90 million budget during its US release in January. However, the more it goes on during a generally contained 97-minute run-time, the more it started to falter and lose me, despite still wanting to like it more than I did. There are good moments and bursts here and there, largely when looking at the weather and details of the new environment; although with growing repetition when it comes to some of the military figures or gangs we see cropping up. All treated with the same stone-faced seriousness, which still works for the tone the film wants to strike although this time around sometimes feeling a bit much whilst still avoiding a need or want for silliness.

Sometimes with the segments that the Garrity family walk through feel like they’re putting the journey to a better place to one side in order to feature more ramshackle locations and tired-looking extras, despite those being on the way. Tension and drama don’t escalate here, instead they appear at irregular intervals in varying degrees – although overall the drama feels as if it decreases over time as interest starts to fade. This is less of a race and more of a brisk walk, with the odd rest stop, to safety.

A post-disaster movie with bursts of tension, but not the race against time feel of beforehand, Greenland 2: Migration has its moments but not quite enough consistent, especially in characters, leading to a feeling of wanting to like it more than actually liking it.