A One Mann’s Movies review of “Greenland 2: Migration” (2026, 1*, 15).
2020’s “Greenland” was a pretty decent movie of its type. I even gave it 4 stars at the time. I watched it again the other day, as it has been six years since the original, and – although I think I was being a tad generous with that rating – it still holds up well. Now, we have a belated sequel, also starring Gerard Butler, Monica Baccarin and Roman Griffin Davis as the three members of the Garrity family. But, sadly, “Greenland 2: Migration” is a VERY different story.
The film is not getting a widespread cinematic release in most geographies (for very good reasons… it’s utter shite!) But it IS having a release in Portugal, where I am at the moment, so I did today get to see it on the big screen. I really wish I hadn’t bothered!
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
We last saw the Garrity family – John (Gerard Butler), Allison (Morena Baccarin) and Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis) – emerging from their Greenland bunker and blinking in the light of a newly devastated world. But that emergence was premature, since the world is not ready to receive them due to fierce atmospheric storms and high radiation levels. So the community retire underground for another 5 years. But now with supplies running dangerously low and geological disturbances becoming increasingly strong and local, they need to come up with a new plan to survive.
Certification:
UK: ’12A’; US: PG-13. (The film has not been rated by the BBFC as it is not receiving a general UK cinema release. I would expect it to be a 12A due to violence and tense scenes…. I can’t immediately see why it would deserve a 15 like the first film.)
Talent:
Starring: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roman Griffin Davis, Amber Rose Revah, Ken Nwosu, Sophie Thompson, William Abadie, Nelia Valery.
Directed by: Ric Roman Waugh.
Written by: Mitchell LaFortune & Chris Sparling. (Based on characters created by Chris Sparling.)
Running Time: 1h 38m.
Summary:
Positives:
- I have nothing.
Negatives:
- The writing is truly terrible.
- The story is utterly ludicrous.
- The ending is stolen.
- 1 hour and 39 minutes have never gone by so slowly.
Full Review of “Greenland 2: Migration”:
Did Trump see an early cut?
You couldn’t buy free publicity like this could you? Greenland, a sovereign Danish state that most Americans probably couldn’t point to on a map prior to the last few weeks, was (until the Davros meeting yesterday when TACO retreated) suddenly the “Poland” of World War 3.
But I do wonder (satire) if Trump got a lot of his ideas by seeing an early cut of this film. For in the first few minutes, we see a framed US flag on the wall of the Thule Air Force bunker. And when they meet up with their old family friend Mackenzie Matthews (Sophie Thompson) in a London hospital, the sound of machine gun fire is heard outside and Matthews intones, seriously, “London is a dangerous place”. From her lips to a Fox News teleprompter!
A totally bonkers story.
The whole plot is ludicrous, revolving around some bonkers idea that scientist Dr. Casey Amina (Amber Rose Revah) has that at the site of the impact of the largest piece of the Clarke comet (in the Mediterranean) there will be some sort of thriving Garden of Eden that will have sprung up. The air will be pure; the radiation will be “shielded”; the lumps of molten rock still falling from the sky won’t trouble it; etc. I mean…. like… WHAT THE ACTUAL F***!!???
Then we get into ‘storyboarding convenience’ territory. When things need to happen, they do, and right away! (There are spoilers in the below, but this is all so bad I really don’t care!)
- John (Butler) is on a dangerous mission to… find a rusty spanner… in a wrecked destroyer (I’m not making this up!) and suddenly instead of having LOTS of time, a vicious storm comes in;
- Then immediately afterwards a fault opens up right at the site of the base, that has been there for many many years. (I’ll ignore some bizarre refugee rescue mission going on at the same time, which seems to be there because the writer’s AI-bot thought it should show Allison (Baccarin) is still a caring, sharing type!)
- Adrift in the middle of the Atlantic in a lifeboat and without diesel, food or water, the merry band – which still includes the bat-shit crazy aforementioned Dr. Amina – suddenly bumps into… the Liver Building! (I’m still not making this up!)
- After an interesting interchange with Nigerian refugee Obi (Ken Nwosu) – “ah…”, I thought, “…an interesting character to join the gang on their travels” – there is suddenly (because we can’t have more than 2 minutes of character development and discussion in this film) a massive fireball attack from space. (Bye Obi, nice knowing you.)
- When the intrepid three (Dr Amina has been shot in the head already, for having stupid ideas) try to cross the English Channel on a rope bridge and a couple of ladders (no, I’m STILL not making this up), the screenwriters decide that this is the right time to send another apocalyptic earthquake.
I could go on.
Moments of calm and quiet are short-lived.
I said in my title that this film had no discernible merits, which is perhaps a bit – a tiny bit – unfair. The previously referenced sequence in London where the travellers meet up with Mackenzie Matthews (Sophie Thompson, who is Emma’s sister by the way) is quite sweetly done, with Matthews selflessly caring for a whole ward of dementia patients. (We won’t ask where she is getting all her supplies from!)
The film also hits its stride slightly more in Calais, when the travellers are taken in by Denis Laurent (William Abadie) who has an ulterior motive…. he wants to set his teenage daughter Camille (Nelia Valery) as the ‘Eve’ to Nathan Garrity’s ‘Adam’ on their journey to the Garden of Eden. (Clearly not so coarsely spelled out, since both loved-up kids – well, Nathan at least – are only 15-ish, but we all understand the subtext.) This section of the film actually works quite well… but it is short-lived before we are back into mindless travelling, shootings and civil war.
A stolen ending!
The ending is actually stolen, almost frame-for-frame, from the ending of a blockbuster film from 2017. Shameless! I won’t say here, since it is a spoiler, but check out the Spoiler Section below the trailer.
Summary Thoughts:
Even thought it’s made by the same (co-)writer and director of the original, “Greenland 2”, this a veritable waste of celluloid. With neither heart, soul or thrills, it crashes and burns and earns itself a definite place in my Top 10 worst films of 2026. You will thankfully not have to fork out real money in the UK for a cinema ticket for this one. But even when it comes to streaming – which it probably will do very shortly – it is a turkey well worth avoiding.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiD3zk0ZRFg.
Spoiler Section
Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.
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NO, SERIOUSLY!
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The stolen ending.
The ending seems a mortally wounded John Garrity (Butler) over a hilltop, leading his family to the ‘promised land’ of the impact crater (yeah, like, right). Having seen the garden of Eden – a very ridiculous piece of special effects – John sinks to his knees and promptly dies. Remind you of anything? Of course, it’s the EXACT ending of “War For The Planet of the Apes“, where Andy Serkis’s Caesar leads his people over the hill to paradise and promptly dies for his efforts. Unbelievable!
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