Greenland 2: Migration Is Dark And Realistic - But Is That What We Want From Disaster Movies?

The following contains spoilers for Greenland 2: MigrationGreenland 2: Migration is a bleak disaster movie, which misses out on a minor but crucial element of the genre. Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin return as John and Allison Garrity, trying to survive in the aftermath of a comet devastating the entire planet. Like the previous Greenland, it's all played very dramatically.

The result is a film that works pretty well when it's a drama about the remnants of society, but stumbles when it reverts to a disaster movie. That's because without levity, the bleak tone bristles against the overwhelming darkness of the plot. The film needed a bit more heart and humor to really work, something that elevates other disaster movies.

Greenland 2: Migration Is A Grim Story With A Bittersweet Ending

While the disaster movie genre is typically defined in part by darker story beats and somber character turns, there's also typically a sense of self-awareness or dark comedy to provide levity — something Greenland 2: Migration is lacking. For the most part, Migration remains firmly focused on the dangers facing the Garrity family.

There's no time for self-reflection, with even the quieter moments with old and newfound friends alike carrying unspoken acceptance of an inglorious end. The stakes feel lessened, however, because the relatively small number of major characters and lack of levity leave the audience with characters who feel invincible and straightforward.

The Garrity family is brought to life by good actors who fill out the archetypes well, but the characters themselves spend much of the film with a lack of distinct personality outside of singular traits like "desperate," "good-natured," and "sad." There are a few character moments to dispel that typical character space.

What makes this frustrating is that the film does find some lighter character moments in the opening scenes, before the Garrity family is sent racing across Europe due to an earthquake. These little moments, like John playfully teasing his son or "reluctantly" dancing with his wife, do a great job of humanizing the characters.

Because the audience has renewed engagement with the trio, the stakes feel so much higher when they subsequently have to escape an earthquake and tidal wave. As the film goes on, however, the non-stop tragedy and challenges overshadow the qualities that make the characters personally compelling.

It's clear that Greenland 2: Migration isn't interested in spectacle for the sake of it, but is engaged with the fallout amid humanity and the desperation of survivors to see another day. It's dark and justifies that tone with the worldbuilding. However, that relentless bleakness also makes the film less naturally engaging and entertaining than it could have been.

Why Disaster Movies Need To Have Some Fun To Be Great

Past generations of disaster movies didn't used to be like this, however. Movies like Poseidon, The Towering Inferno, and The Day After Tomorrow mined their circumstances for plenty of horror and human drama, but also found moments of dark comedy or surprising humanity. Those films found grim satisfaction in killing off bad people or included comic relief figures.

It's only natural to try and find bright spots in terrible situations, an inherent response to the horrors of the world that is crucial for the sake of emotional pacing in a narrative. A joke can give characters a bit more personality, relieve the tension after a high-stakes scene, or even just remind audiences of a character's humanity.

Greenland 2: Migration isn't the first disaster movie to largely eschew comedy in all shapes and forms, but it is notable for just how humorless the entire experience is. The situation is apocalyptic, but relentlessly bleak. The film hops back and forth from bittersweet hope to unrelenting darkness.

The result is that, by the end of the film, the characters have endured a great deal of hardship and are rewarded with a brighter future. However, they've felt like cogs in a narrative machine, with the emotional core of the central dynamics felt on the surface more than in the interactions.

For contrast, it's worth looking at something like Twister or Deep Impact. The former focuses on making the characters likable and relatable, meaning the audience is further connected with the characters as they try not to be swept away and killed. It's crucial to make the film enjoyable.

Deep Impact is closer to Migration in terms of tone, with a grim sense of inevitability and a resilient feeling of hope amid the horrors of an extinction-level event. However, that film also kept focus on the character dynamics in a way that Migration steadily stops to as the film goes on.

As a result, the audience was more invested in the characters' plight as they struggled to survive. Even the first Greenland did a better job of this. While the film wasn't exactly a funny movie by any stretch, the more grounded focus on characters and their relationships in an extreme situation made it easier to engage with.

Disaster movies with the ability to infuse character and comedy into the narrative are crucial to the genre, as they ensure audiences care about the people lost in the chaos. Migration is best when it returns to the tone of the first movie and tackles the more direct cost and horror of society falling apart.

When the movie shifts into a disaster movie, though, the scale of events and the reduced focus on the people make it feel like an empty spectacle. Migration is far from the first disaster movie to be too serious for its own good. Still, it's disappointing that Greenland 2: Migration misses out on potential ways to make audiences more invested.