Just to be clear, this is the review of the film Greenland, not a treatise on American foreign relations with Greenland. I remember thinking that January 2026 was either the best or worst time to open Greenland 2, and it turned out to be the latter of the two options. However, I know there’s a deep amount of lore, and I did not want to feel like I was missing out. Gerard Butler films are known for the intricacies in their screenplays, worlds built carefully and slowly over time. So, join me as I step foot into the pandemic success of Greenland, not for America, but purely for my own selfish reasons.

Turns out, this isn’t bad. I was as surprised as you were. It’s probably why the film did moderately well, and people celebrated Gerard Butler in something where nothing was falling. Well, something is falling, and it’s a big ass rock from space, which will devastate our planet, and throw us into a post apocalyptic nightmare. Greenland follows Butler, an engineer, along with his wife (MMorena Baccarin), and his son (Roger Dale Floyd). We do not get a ton of exposition. Mom and Dad aren’t getting along, their son is diabetic, and Dad is an engineer. From that point, the news won’t stop talking about this asteroid headed right for us. Butler is selected in some survival lottery, and is informed while in the grocery store that he, his wife, and his son need to make their way to a special facility to be put on a plane, where they get to survive the apocalypse.

Of course, this doesn’t go as expected, at any point along the way, and their son’s diabetes becomes a pervasive problem in the script as needed. Still, the film is about family, against all odds, fighting to stay together in impossible circumstances to stay together, and survive the end of the world. Considering Butler did Geostorm, I can firmly say Greenland is much better. Instead of fully relying on some lost Roland Emmrich spark of imagination, the film actually is fueled more by what people are like in this situation, how quickly friends become enemies, and how despite being miles apart, this family somehow gets a happy ending. I thought that was a bit much, given how much of the country they have to traverse, and how far apart they are at certain points, but they needed a sequel.

Gerard Butler’s career has been a bit of a mixed bag, with his desire to say Yes to the dress at every opportunity. This has resulted in him stepping into some incredibly generic action films that seemingly have no purpose, and could have starred anyone. He did get to come back for the live action How To Train Your Dragon, proving that at one point, he was a marketable star. Greenland is a bit more on the end of the types of films Butler should be choosing. Films with just enough of a budget, enough talent in front and behind the camera, to make something feel unique, instead of deeply derivative of a hundred films that came before it. We have so many apocalypse films, and yet, this film still felt oddly fresh, for reasons unknown.

And it’s not all on him. Morena Baccarin does a lot of heavy lifting as the wife and mother, with no discernible skill set, she’s still a momma bear and protective of her son. Ric Roman Waujh is the director here,and he’s made some films I wouldn’t recommend, so it is pleasantly surprising to see he made something that answers the question of why he gets his films a budget. It probably helped that he had worked with Butler before on Angel Has Fallen, and the two reteamed on Kandahar. One of those films is more unnecessary than the other, but neither is as good or interesting as Greenland. Greenland is what happens when you want to make a really big movie, but your budget doesn’t allow it, and somehow you still make the film feel like a major tentpole by creatively shooting around the apocalypse and not putting its devastation front and center like in 2012 or Moonfall.

The audio description was also pretty solid for this type of film. They do look at screens occasionally, and the film avoids a lot of major tidal waves, explosions, and the kinds of shots that destroy a VFX budget. Still, I believe it was Darren Polish, and he did a nice job on the film, and the description understands how to ratchet up the tension between the humans who cannot always be trusted.

Greenland is shockingly worth your time. It feels weird to say that aobut a Gerard Butler film, but it manages to spin just enough of its own apocalyptic yarn to differentiate itself from its contemporaries.

Fresh: 7.6/10