Let me start this off with saying that the wife and I are fans (?) of the pure popcorn Gerard Butler action flicks. We went to watch Plane in the theatres, and somehow enjoyed it. The wife also like disaster movies, we went and saw Moonfall in theatres too, I'm not as big a fan but I do enjoy a good towering inferno or adventure with Poseidon.
You would think Greenland and it's sequel would be right up our alley. We somehow missed the first movie, so we had to get caught up on that first one and so we streamed it and watched it about a week before we went to theatres to see the sequel.
Greenland -
This is a tense, everything goes wrong, but the main characters still have plot armor, disaster flick. It is a bit of a combination of 2012/Don't Look Up disaster film, and No Escape family just trying to find safety story. So many other people who do so much more to help and die in some bad ways. There's the sense of desperation and humans are the real enemies. I mean we all know Roy from The Office is a bad guy, but there's so many others too. Of course there are a few people that are good and helpful, but those people die worse than anyone. Holt McCallany, who's becoming one of my favorite active character actors, think Clancy Brown but with more dramatic less bombastic, saves the main family and gets crushed by ice for his trouble. Of course, everything turns out ok for the main family and were given a sense of hope by the end. Overall this was an ok film, but the many flaws will not make this one that we'll every think of to rewatch. No Escape has better tension and a better story about a family surviving an insane situation and there are so many other disaster movies I'd rather watch, even *shudder* Moonfall because at least its unique.
Greenland 2: Migration
The bunker that the family spent all movie working so hard to get to last movie is destroyed at the beginning of this film. We see a little bit of life in the Bunker, like the boy (who is a new actor, now that kid from Jojo Rabbit) making eyes with another teenage girl, or people debating about saving people vs dwindling resources. All of this is moot though as the bunker getting destroyed means everyone has to run to the main crater of the biggest chunk of the comet landed because it's the safe place now? MOVIE SCIENCE!!! The insulin that the boy needed so desperately that created so many issues the last movie is briefly mentioned once this movie and then is no longer an issue? The girl he flirted with, as they were escaping I though he stopped to save her, but nope it was a scientist that we briefly saw earlier too. It was too shaky and quick to realize who it was until a bit later. Like why even introduce the flirting if it literally goes no where. They also save the mean man who was concerned about resources over saving others. That guy dies pretty quickly. The man that they then get a ride from, that weirdly they don't even ask his name until hours (?!?!) after he picks them up? And guess what, within 10 minutes of finding out his name... DEAD! The scientist lady who says the safety land is possible, dead shortly after because humans suck. They eventually make their way to another man who conveniently knows all about what's going on. The man helps them on their way and sends his daughter with them so she can be safe too, and guess what, the boy and her are all flirty flirty!!! Why was the original girl even in this if there was nothing to tie that into the plot at all!!! We then find out the crater is real and it's EDEN and there is a war being fought over it (on the outside of the crater not inside). The west want to protect people inside and the east want to get in there and exploit the recources. So there's a warzone to get through. We see the carnage of war and all these people fighting. And guess what, not a single "good" person fighting cares that they're out here to die while the family makes their way to safety without having to fight at all. Like absolute disconnect there. This movie was trash. The best part of the whole thing was the candy I got.
In case you haven't noticed, I didn't even name the family or their characters and that's how generic they really were. It doesn't matter. you could have plugged in anyone into these roles and it was just Meh, at best. I do not recommend this series, there are so much better movies out there. Honestly if it wasn't the end of the movie, the weird fighting for people for no reason other than "we're good, they're bad" would have probably made me give up on the movie. For a series that wants to show the best and worst of humanity in many cases, this was just the least human thing I've seen. Chappie wouldn't have understood at all.
There you go, my first review post. Sorry it wasn't one that I could recommend, so here's a brief list of family/disaster films to go with instead:
The Towering Inferno
The Poseidon Adventure
No Escape
Children of Men
A Quiet Place
Swiss Family Robinson
The Host (2006)
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