Greenland (2020) STX/Action-Adventure-Drama RT: 119 minutes Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of disaster action, some violence, bloody images, brief strong language) Director: Ric Roman Waugh Screenplay: Chris Sparling Music: David Buckley Cinematography: Dana Gonzales Release date: December 18, 2020 (US) Cast: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd, Scott Glenn, David Denman, Hope Davis, King Bach, Merrin Dungey, Holt McCallany. Box Office: $52.3M (World)
Rating: ***
I never even heard of Greenland until I saw the trailer for the sequel Greenland 2: Migration (opening Jan. 9). It came out during the pandemic, a time when I couldn’t get out to the multiplex due to restrictions (I was high risk). To date, I still haven’t seen all the movies I missed during my forced 438-day hiatus from doing what I’ve done all my life. I scratched one of them off the list this past weekend.
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen), Greenland is an end-of-the-world survival thriller about a man, structural engineer John Garrity (Butler, Geostorm), trying to get his family to safety ahead of a comet that threatens to wipe out most of humanity. He and his family, estranged wife Allison (Baccarin, Deadpool 1-3) and diabetic son Nathan (Floyd, Doctor Sleep), have been selected for emergency sheltering at a facility in Greenland. They have two days before impact so time is a critical factor. Naturally, they run into problems that ultimately cause them to become separated in the chaos. John races against the clock to reunite with his family and get them to the shelter.
Greenland isn’t your typical disaster movie like Roland Emmerich’s apocalyptic adventure 2012 (2009). Although it has a few scenes of mass destruction, it isn’t about spectacle and special effects. It focuses more on the family drama. It’s more realistic and grounded with characters and situations we can all relate to. The disaster is merely a backdrop. The Garritys are not a picture-perfect family. Things between John and Allison are tense. They’re currently living apart. They try to stay civil for their young son’s sake, but you can tell something’s up with them by the guarded way they communicate with each other. When they arrive at the military airbase, it’s learned that Nathan’s medical condition makes him ineligible for sheltering. Then the boy gets kidnapped by a seemingly helpful couple (Denman and Davis) looking for a way onto the planes taking the chosen ones to safer ground. A frantic Allison searches for him while John makes his way to meet up with them at her father’s (Glenn, The Silence of the Lambs) ranch in Kentucky.
You could look at Greenland as the flip side to Geostorm, an entertainingly idiotic disaster movie also starring Butler. That one is more like the Irwin Allen all-star spectacles of the 70s- e.g. The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno- with the paper-thin characters, silly dialogue and scenes of mass destruction. Greenland takes itself more seriously while still delivering a reasonable amount of thrills and near escapes. The science of it isn’t as questionable as what we got in Geostorm. I can more readily believe the idea of a comet causing the extinction of all life on earth (it happened once before) than a satellite controlling the weather. Waugh struggles a bit with balancing action movie thrills and human drama, but he ultimately manages to cross the goal line.
Butler isn’t in action hero mode here. He plays a regular Joe, a working man, a basically decent guy with character flaws. All he wants is to keep his family together in the midst of a world-ending catastrophic event. He occasionally springs into action in the name of self-preservation, but he never fights with the derring-do of his character from the Fallen movies. He does a pretty good job in the role. But let’s face it, Butler really is more of an action guy. He (and Jason Statham) is the closest thing we have to an old school action star these days. The rest of the cast does decently. Baccarin has a few good moments as a mom in panic mode. It’s always great to see Glenn. Floyd holds his own too. To his credit, he doesn’t overplay the sick kid card.
Although Greenland doesn’t wholly rely on FX, it does have a few scenes of disaster action. We’re talking explosions and whole cities being erased. Obviously, it’s all CGI. To me, it’s nowhere near as convincing as the practical effects and miniatures used in 70s disaster epics. It’s not to say that these effects are bad. They’re fine. It’s just a matter of personal preference.
It has some pacing issues, but Greenland is pretty good for the most part. It’s not a fun ride through a disaster scenario, but it’s not a depressing affair like The Road either. It’s entertaining on a medium scale which I’ll take over any of the empty large-scale epics with all the sound and fury signifying absolutely nothing. To his credit, Waugh tries. He doesn’t wholly succeed, but he does better than most if that makes sense.
