Florida's Film, Television and the Arts Magazine
Greenland 2: Migration - movie review
When we last saw the Garrity family, John (Gerard Butler), Allison (Morena Baccarin) and young son Nathan were fleeing Clarke, the planet-destroying comet whose fragments were suddenly bombarding Earth. Because of his special engineering abilities, John and his family were given identification wristbands that were supposed to allow them transport and entry to a ‘safe’ government facility. After some harrowing near misses, a kidnapping and multiple explosions, the newly reconciled family eventually found shelter in an underground bunker at the Thule Airbase in Greenland. That film, released in 2020, a truly horrific year for our planet, was a box office smash, bringing in $52.3 million. For obvious reasons, most of that take was through streaming services.
Five years later, in Greenland 2: Migration, it’s clear that comet Clarke isn’t done with us. Fragments are still crashing the atmosphere. Radiation, tsunamis, electrical and dust storms and shifting tectonic plates remain on-going perils. Almost every continent has been destroyed – 75% of the world is gone. Though some survivors with special skills, like John, spend time outside the bunker, scavenging for anything useful, most of the survivalists just live day-to-day. School for the younger set, yoga, some after-work dance parties, anything to make underground life livable. There’s an ad hoc committee of military/scientists and residents who vote on allowing or barring anyone new from entering the compound. This is key to their survival - food is growing scarce.
Using radio broadcasts, survivors connect with other bunkers around the globe, but without planes, trains or ships, there’s little ability to physically reach any of them. Everyone is mentally hanging on by a thread; the therapists are keeping busy.
Nathan, now being played by Roman Griffin David, feels like a prisoner and is itching to get out of the bunker, to see the sun and stars. And who could blame him? Immediately after one such secret outing, the action in G2 unfolds very quickly. Soon the Garrity’s, and everyone else in that bunker, are forced to the surface in a migration for survival.
The disasters which befall the family on their quest for a large crater, which theoretically may provide life sustaining air/water and food, are harrowing. But they provide a mixed bag of disbelief and reality. Nathan’s diabetes, which was the central issue in G1, now, without explanation, is no longer a factor. John is not only an engineer, but also a crack-shot, taking down every vagabond that terrorizes their family, as they journey through the wastelands of Europe. John also spends a lot of time coughing up a lung; everyone notices but he stoically says to ignore it.
Where are survivors washing their clothes? Where do they shower? What are they eating? Where do they bury their dead? When a meteor hit earth and literally killed off the dinosaurs, why do they now believe that one crater would provide protection? It’s only been five years, not thousands. Maybe I’m being picky; it’s not a survivalist documentary. But I’ve seen enough of this genre to feel they glossed over quite a bit of reality. This time their budget was $90 million, three times as much as G1, so they could have shown us some of the day-to-day in the bunker. We certainly got to see it in other places when following the Garrity’s.
For all that, the writing stayed true to the characters, which is what I most appreciated about Greenland 2: Migration. Allison’s character remains the moral core, Nathan just wants to make friends, and John provides the gusto to keep his family safe, at all costs. If you’re willing to suspend belief and just ride the wave of action and some fine special effects, make a night of it and run G1 and G2 back-to-back. It’s a decent opening salvo to the new year.
