‘Greenland 2: Migration’ evaluate: Gerard Butler survives the post-apocalypse

Gerard Butler is the Prince of January. You possibly can print calendars now with the information that the Scottish actor will invariably open the 12 months with some form of motion bombast, starting from the goofy (i.e., final 12 months’s “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera”) to the earnest, like this 12 months’s catastrophe film sequel “Greenland 2: Migration.” Butler reunites along with his “Angel Has Fallen” and “Greenland” director Ric Roman Waugh for the movie and, very like “Den of Thieves 2,” it sees our star setting out for the south of France — in fact, beneath very totally different circumstances.

Within the surprisingly efficient 2020 movie “Greenland,” Butler’s John Garrity and household simply barely survive a comet named Clarke, which destroys 75% of the planet on impression. 5 years later, when “Greenland 2: Migration” takes place, they’re residing in a nuclear fallout bunker in Greenland, sheltering from radioactive storms with a gaggle of survivors. This little society has to select: keep put in a comparatively secure however more and more untenable place or make a transfer for (presumably) greener pastures. These potential pastures are in Clarke’s impression crater, the place a scientist, Dr. Casey Amina (Amber Rose Revah), believes that new life might have sprung, shielded from the poisonous air.

That call is made for them when their bunker is destroyed by earthquakes and the Garrity household escapes throughout the Atlantic with a small group of survivors. They alight in a waterlogged Liverpool and uncover the damaged social factions which have cropped up within the wake of environmental collapse. From there, John and his spouse, Allison (Morena Baccarin), and teenage son, Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis), make their method to London, then Dover and France, seeking Clarke’s touchdown spot.

Their journey takes them from locations which are comfortingly homey (a barricaded reminiscence care residence in London), outlandish (traversing a dry English Channel by way of ladder) and even weirdly historic (trench warfare has returned in France). Waugh’s location taking pictures within the U.Okay. and Iceland makes for some beautiful panorama imagery and retains the world grounded in actuality — for probably the most half — as he did with “Greenland” beforehand. The one distinction is that Butler fades into the background, oddly, with Baccarin, Davis and the rotating solid of individuals they meet drawing focus as a substitute.

There’s an fascinating comparability to make between “Greenland 2: Migration” and Danny Boyle’s 2025 zombie sequel “28 Years Later.” Each function tales about fathers and younger teen sons venturing to the U.Okay. from an island enclave years after catastrophe, however Boyle (and author Alex Garland) are keen to get freaky with it whereas Waugh and writers Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling stroll a really predictable and easy path.

We get a glimpse of the Liverpool lunatics roaming the streets, in addition to faceless marauders and insurgents that make exterior much more harmful than the radioactive air. However for probably the most half, the individuals the Garrity household encounter show to be reliable. I stored anticipating a twist, a rug pull, some spin on the fabric or perhaps a unusual new lifeform birthed by Clarke. I’m undecided why I assumed that was an choice, contemplating the primary movie. Every part proceeds precisely as one would possibly count on.

That’s in step with the movie’s total ethos. Butler’s John hopes for his son that he’s capable of rebuild a world based mostly on kindness and compassion and his imaginative and prescient of what the world could possibly be is certainly mirrored again at him. Battle rages over assets, however individuals are, for probably the most half, first rate.

However who will get to benefit from the spoils of the brand new world? The message that Waugh, LaFortune and Sparling impart is that those that dare to dream that it exists, who endure the journey to get there quite than clinging to tenuous security, are those who’ve earned the prize of latest life and the abundance that comes with it. “Greenland 2: Migration” presents up a proudly, even defiantly optimistic view of what comes after catastrophe, which might serve for the viewer as both cathartic fictional balm, or Pollyanna-ish fantasy — choose your poison.