'Greenland 2: Migration' review: A sequel that drifts further from solid ground

Courtesy of Lionsgate

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In light of recent remarks from public figures fantasizing about purchasing Greenland, along comes Ric Roman Waugh’s “Greenland 2: Migration,” a sequel I’m still not entirely convinced exists. I mostly enjoyed Gerard Butler corralling his family onto a precious one-way ticket to the slick Danish territory in the 2020 thriller, a movie that imagined a comet wiping out more than 75 percent of the planet while leaving Greenland miraculously untouched. That film worked because it knew exactly what it was: a blunt, effective environmental disaster movie anchored by Butler, who is so brooding and authoritative that if he told me to jump off a cliff, I’d at least consider it.

“Greenland 2” is a sillier, far more nonsensical endeavor that, much like its predecessor, barely takes place in Greenland at all. The first film was about trying to make it there. This one, having already arrived, is about fleeing once again after life on the island has somehow become unstable and nearly uninhabitable in the five years between installments. Instead, the sequel spends most of its time in France, hinging its entire narrative on an unverified theory that the comet fragment that landed off the Mediterranean coast in the first film has turned that region into a kind of earthly nirvana. Think lush grass, endless blue skies, and pristine bodies of water. It is less post-apocalypse and more aggressive travel brochure.

If the first “Greenland” functioned as a grim allegory for climate change and humanity’s general inability to get its act together, “Migration” doesn’t abandon that idea so much as dilute it. The concept is right there in the title. A planet pushed to its breaking point, forcing mass displacement, is hardly a stretch of the imagination. The film picks up five years later and follows John Garrity, once again played by Butler, alongside his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) and son Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis), as they attempt to reach this rumored comet sanctuary before worsening weather patterns and lingering debris finish the job the first impact started.

To Waugh’s credit, he squeezes some genuine tension out of the premise. The film is peppered with solid set pieces, including shootouts with marauders, collapsing caves, and a standout sequence in which the family crosses a makeshift ladder bridge stitched together with rags while violent winds threaten to tear it apart. Waugh excels at placing characters in immediate, physical danger and pushing forward without overthinking the details. Unfortunately, the movie also depends heavily on convenience. Characters appear exactly when needed, delivering lines like, “Good thing I found you or you’d be dead,” without a hint of irony. A lifeboat floating in the ocean that has conveniently run out of gas just happens to drift into Liverpool at the exact moment supplies are depleted. And Nathan, who was established in the first film as diabetic, never once injects insulin. Apparently, in this apocalypse, insulin is easier to find than common sense.

Where the original film thrived on its sense of panic and emotional relatability, “Migration” feels curiously hollow. The characters are more hardened, which makes sense after half a decade of global collapse, but that emotional armor drains the story of urgency. More than anything, the sequel underscores how unnecessary it is. Butler and Baccarin remain reliable anchors, and Butler in particular continues his long-running tradition of owning the January release calendar. The script by Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling does what it can with a thin concept stretched even thinner, but no amount of competence can fully justify the exercise.

January is often a dumping ground for studios, and while “Greenland 2: Migration” is far from high cinema, its straightforward, meat-and-potatoes survival mechanics give it a baseline level of watchability. Even when it’s dull or outright silly, it has a pulse. It’s just not the kind of pulse that demands a sequel, let alone insists on one. But they can’t all be “Den of Thieves 2.” 

Grade: C+

GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION is now playing in theaters.