3/12 ForReel Score | 2/5 Stars

Ric Roman Waugh’s Greenland was one of 2020’s rare pleasant surprises. It was marketed as a low rent disaster flick that would fit snugly in the bargain bin next to fellow Gerard Butler vehicle Geostorm. The set pieces that attempted to convey the cataclysmic destruction caused by the comet “Clarke” would not have carried the day in a bad movie. The shoddy CGI renderings of leveled cities, exploding vehicles and comet fragments nipping at the Garrity family’s heels stretched every cent of the thirty five million dollar budget. Miraculously, it didn’t matter. Greenland subverted the conventions of a genre that is usually all too eager to maroon audiences with stock characters who are just there to die. It tripled down on emotion. After being selected to be sheltered in a Greenland bunker, the estranged Garrity Family had to reconnect to survive both the environmental dangers and perhaps more alarmingly, the people they were leaving behind. We saw humanity in every horrified and desperate person who stood in their way, lacing every hard won escape with heartbreak. In the face of the pandemic, that was oddly comforting. Now, here we are in 2026, a year that is quickly asserting itself as the most hopeless and violent year we’ve had since. Sadly, Greenland 2: Migration does not meet the moment. This is a classic case of a sequel to an accidentally great movie having absolutely zero understanding of what worked in the original.

We reunite with the Garrity family five years after they crawled into that bunker. John (Gerard Butler) has been spending some time outside, scavenging for resources amongst the radiation-ridden ruins. Allison (Morena Baccarin) has taken on a more political role, serving as a member of the bunker’s strategic council. Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis) doesn’t have much going for him. His diabetes somehow seems to have improved and he spends his days wandering outside without a mask and making googly eyes at girls in his science class. One unfortunate day, a storm destroys the bunker, and the Garritys find themselves adrift at sea when they and a small group of survivors escape onto a small boat. They decide to head for Clarke’s crater, which is rumored to be where the natural world is starting to heal itself.

All of the tension within the family is settled. John no longer has a wandering eye so he and Allison are stoically and resolutely in love. It is nice to see them cooperating and working together well, but their lack of friction makes them both more plain. The only friction comes from later revelations about John’s health, which are certainly sad, but don’t factor into the major survival sequences much. We barely even see Butler physically struggling unless we’re in a downtime scene where he can have a coughing fit while Baccarin caresses him. Both are veteran B-Movie talents and they do mine some feeling out of this material, but there just isn’t as much there. The same cannot be said for Roman Griffin Davis, who replaces the outstanding Roger Dale Floyd as Nathan. In that film, Floyd delivered a perfect realization of a terrified child trying to process the end of the world, his parents’ marital problems and his own illness. Davis is completely sterile. There’s no reason why this character should be acting more stoic, he’s not going through a rebellious phase or anything of note, frankly. He’s just a dour teenage boy who is along for the ride. In the third act he’s called upon to bring more energy and he completely whiffs it. He is too young to be phoning it in and his apathy sinks this lower than any tidal wave could.

Speaking of, we have quite a bit more money this time around, but Ric Roman Waugh’s set pieces are unimpressive. The standout is a sequence where the family has to crawl across a chasm that was once The English Channel on a small rope as the weather starts acting up. Its a tense setup, even if it starts looking shoddy when the effects take over and Roman Griffin Davis’ tepid realization of fear is forced to carry the day. Otherwise, there’s a short nautical escape where the small boat has to brave 2 medium tidal waves and a dimly lit military skirmish that may as well be from Kandahar (also directed by Waugh). I began this month thrilled that we were getting this and Shelter from Waugh just a few weeks apart but now I’m certain that he’s going to deliver one of the lamer Jason Statham movies.

Sometimes the most innocuous film disappointments are the saddest. I wasn’t necessarily expecting Greenland 2: Migration to be as surprising and moving as the original. I would’ve accepted “enjoyable.” It would’ve be nice to have a more humanistic franchise in this vein. A couple moments scratch the surface of being about something, but on the whole this series has devolved into dour sludge, decaying alongside the world it depicts.

Movie Review: 'Greenland 2: Migration' Leaves Behind The Original’s Emotional Heft