Greenland 2: Migration - Sequel to that Well Received Disaster Survival Thriller Movie

Few days ago, this film was released in Indonesian theaters which I was quite intrigued. But due to some reasons, we decided to see it yesterday. Since my wife never watched the first movie, she gave it a try on Thursday night and I joined her mid way through it. All right then, let's get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

For five years after the catastrophic event of Clarke comet hitting earth, John Garrity (Gerard Butler - Den of Thieves 2, Plane etc) with his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin - Fast Charlie, Deadpool 2 etc) and their teenage child Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis - Jojo Rabbit, The Long Walk etc) had to live in the Greenland bunker together with lots of fellow survivors. However, due to various reasons, the Garrity along with several others that included Dr. Amina (Amber Rose Revah - Marvel's The Punisher TV series, From Paris with Love etc) had no choice but to move to another location.

They decided to go to a place in France rumored to be safe and clean of radiation. But the journey was very difficult as they had to go through dangerous terrain and people fighting for resources. 

So what would happen to the Garrity family? You could find out in this movie. 

End of Brief Story Line

I was glad that I accompanied my wife to watch the original movie first cause frankly I had quite forgotten a lot of details as it was almost five years since I saw it via online streaming. Yes that film was released during the pandemic and the cinemas were either closed or we did not have the courage to go back then. Anyway because I re-watched it and my wife also experienced the movie, we were able to appreciate the sequel better. However, because it was stil fresh in our mind, we did notice few inconsistencies between the sequel and its predecessor, particularly the timeline (age of Nathan did not match with the years passed) and also the fact that he was a diabetic boy.

Anyway, aside from those things, the tone of this film was still the same. It had plenty of suspenseful scenes where people had to survive and the intensity was felt stronger since we saw this in a large studio supported by good sound effect even with standard Dolby surround system. The emotional part were quite a lot as well just like in the first movie, although I thought this one has an especially touching moment. It has a shorter duration of 98 minutes compared to almost 2 hours, but it was sufficient for me and my wife.

This film relied on the star power of Gerard Butler who seemed perfect in his role (as my wife pointed out) while Morena Baccarin also looked compatible with him. Not sure about the reason why Nathan's character who was previously portrayed by Roger Dale Floyd was replaced by Roman. Aside from the names above, there were also support cast such as Trond Fausa (Lilyhammer TV series etc) & Tommie Earl Jenkins (The Rainmaker TV series etc) as high level personnels in Greenland  Adam Shaw & General Sharpe respectively, William Abadie (Emily in Paris TV series etc) as a survivor in France named Denis Laurent and few others. This sequel was still directed by Ric Roman Waugh who had worked together with Butler in Kandahar & Angel Has Fallen. The movie was written by Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling (The Desperate Hour, The Sea of Trees etc) who also wrote the original. It made me wonder though why there were inconsistencies when it was written by same person.

The special effects here were quite decent, but one scene in particular towards the end was not exactly great as it seemed rather obvious CGI. Critics were mixed with this sequel and it was rather pale in comparison with the well received original. For me and my wife, we still enjoyed the movie even with few shortcomings since the never ending ordeal the Garrity family had to endure was enough to keep us engaged. I think that this movie had a pretty conclusive end and I do not believe there would be a third one, unless the writer had something else in his mind. 

So if you are interested in seeing a post-apocalyptic disaster survival thriller, then I think this one should be enjoyable enough. Despite there were few scenes in the beginning showing what happened in the original movie, I think it's better to watch it first (it's available on Netflix in Indonesia and other streaming services in different countries). However if you need wonderful writing and awesomely done visual effects, then this might not be to your liking. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars