Greenland 2: Migration proves brains beat brawn in the apocalypse

Greenland 2: Migration (PG13)

98 minutes, now showing
★★★★☆

The story: Following the comet strike shown in Greenland (2020), the once-fractured Garrity family – John (Gerard Butler), Allison (Morena Baccarin) and son Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis) – is now much closer after spending five years sheltering in a bunker. Another disaster strikes, forcing the family to take a hazardous journey over land and sea to Europe, where a haven is said to exist.

Greenland was a disaster movie with surprisingly few disasters on screen. Much of it had to do with the Garrity family becoming separated during the chaos of social collapse, then struggling to reunite. The near-misses and unlucky coincidences that foiled their attempts to meet were studies in delicious frustration.

The sequel offers a more conventional disaster-movie story. Five years after the comet strike, Earth is not just racked by radioactive storms and seismic horrors, but also bands of marauders.

Death can come suddenly, from any direction – a fact the story exploits to maintain a feeling of dread that never lets up till the end.

The story could have gone down a few paths, from the brutal post-apocalyptic survival action to the lone-wolf heroics of Butler’s John Garrity. Instead, like the first film, the focus is on family drama. Tough choices have to be made at several points that test the resolve of the three family members to look after one another.

The biggest tests are about moral character. With son Nathan in tow, the adults have to be models of humanity. In a series of vignettes, the grown-ups must survive without sacrificing their decency.

For them, becoming a monster to survive in a world of monsters is not an option.

The character development, from naive bunker dwellers to smart survivalists, is handled well. The Garritys are the same nice middle-class people from the first movie, but upgraded with new skills.

Scottish actor Butler has played a range of tough guys over his career, but here, the story resists turning him into a one-man army. It can be jarring seeing his character using words instead of his trigger finger to get out of trouble, so credit must be given to director Ric Roman Waugh – returning from the first film – for making the film about a dad protecting his family using empathy and brains.

The focus on interpersonal drama and emotion over action thrills carries a cost. The pace drags in places, but it is never long before some violence – from other survivors or the treacherous weather – gets things cracking along again.

The tight 98-minute runtime is a smart move when the film could have so easily been padded with survival vignettes that add nothing to the story.

Hot take: This disaster-movie sequel places family bonds and moral integrity over spectacle, earning its emotional beats.