Critic Reviews

Greenland 2 manages to put itself in a league of its own, proving that, not only can disaster movies avoid being totally nonsensical, but also, there can be something that comes after—and that exploration of what's next can be just as good as what came before.

Greenland 2 still feels like a silly disaster pic at times. But it's a cut above the rest, mostly because it's less interested in grand spectacle and more focused on everyday people just trying to make it through another damn day. We can all relate to that.

Ric Roman Waugh’s movie is a notable step up from the first film. The Garritys’ traversal across the treacherous North Atlantic Ocean and dashes past marauding bandits in Europe make for real human stakes.

A sturdy continuation of this cataclysmic big-screen series, whose large-scale set pieces are rooted in the fear, anguish, and compassion of its appealing main characters.

Migration is a preposterous yet grounded thriller thanks to good performances and centered on a desperate, hopeful plight. Honestly, watch the first movie: It's fun, but you actually don't have to have seen it to enjoy Migration.

These Greenland films may not always have a coherent point, but when they focus on the nuts and bolts of survival and the toll that surviving takes on these characters, they’re efficient, effectively crafted genre pictures.

What’s surprising is that Waugh and his team shine in the quieter moments.

For their part, the Garrity family is asked to carry more weight with less substance, and their non-characters struggle to support the emotional burden of an intimate life-or-death journey, the destination of which is a lot sillier than it was the last time around.

Greenland 2: Migration offers up a proudly, even defiantly, optimistic view of what comes after disaster, which can serve for the viewer as either cathartic fictional balm, or Pollyanna-ish fantasy — pick your poison.

Greenland 2 plays out as a much more generic thriller than its predecessor.