Greenland 2: Migration
Gerry Butts and Co. make like birds by migrating.
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Five and a half years ago I was sent a screener for the Gerard Butler vehicle “Greenland.” I watched the majority of the movie, but the link expired with a few minutes remaining and I never finished the film until yesterday when preparing to review its sequel “Greenland 2: Migration” (now in theaters). The first flick is definitely better and more thoughtful than the second, but is it even January if we aren’t treated to a Gerry Butts action picture?
John Garrity (Butler), his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) and their teenage son Nathan (Jojo Rabbit himself Roman Griffin Davis, stepping in for Roger Dale Floyd) have been living in a Greenland-based bunker alongside other survivors of the interstellar comet Clarke, which wiped out 75 percent of humanity.
With air quality worsening and the bunker buckling, the Garritys must escape via life boat to Europe at the behest of scientist Dr. Casey Amina (Amber Rose Revah, she memorably played Agent Dinah Madani on “The Punisher” television series), who suggests there’s a crater there where clean air and water are available in abundance.
The Garritys stop and visit with Allison’s friend Mackenzie Matthews (noted British actress Sophie Thompson), catch a ride with Obi (Ken Nwosu) and shack up with French soldier Denis Laurent (William Abadie, a co-star on Peyton Manning’s favorite television show “Emily in Paris”), his sickly wife Julia (Susan Eljack) and their comely daughter Camille (Nelia Valery Da Costa) whilst all the while avoiding wandering/warring raiders and rebels and the occasional comet crash.
Frequent Butler collaborator Ric Roman Waugh directs yet again (he also has the Jason Statham action picture “Shelter” dropping later this month) and the picture is scripted by returning writer Chris Sparling with an assist by Mitchell LaFortune (he penned previous Butler/Waugh joint “Kandahar”).
The flick is kind of boring, but gets markedly better when the Garritys get out of the bunker. Nathan’s diabetes, which was a major plot point of “Greenland,” is barely addressed. The movie is much more concerned with Nathan’s chances of getting laid by having him goofily moon over Female Student (Megan Jacobs Shrivastava) and Camille. Davis is a good actor who deserves better, but is mostly just along for the ride. There’s action (not for Nathan) and it’s pretty good, but there’s not nearly enough of it.
I did get a good laugh out of Butler’s John running from a radiation storm while exclaiming, “Pish! Shite!” (“Holy fook!,” would arguably be funnier.) Butler and Abadie’s pronunciation of “crater” also never ceased to amuse.
“Greenland 2: Migration” feels too short at 99 minutes (21 minutes shorter than “Greenland”) and stripped to the bone. It needed to be more and were it any less it’d pretty much cease to exist.