Directed By Ric Roman Waugh

Starring – Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd

The Plot – A family fights for survival as a planet-killing comet races to Earth. John Garrity (Butler), his estranged wife Allison (Baccarin), and young son Nathan (Floyd) make a perilous journey to their only hope for sanctuary. Amid terrifying news accounts of cities around the world being leveled by the comet’s fragments, the Garrity’s experience the best and worst in humanity while they battle the increasing panic and lawlessness surrounding them. As the countdown to global apocalypse approaches zero, their incredible trek culminates in a desperate and last-minute flight to a possible safe haven.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of disaster action, some violence, bloody images and brief strong adult language

POSITIVES

– Timely relevant. Especially during a year when there is a new thing to worry about and fear every single week, “Greenland” feels like the cherry on a sundae that if nothing else will allow us to appreciate and take in the things that we still have left. In that regard, it’s a deranged feel good flick of sorts during a very disturbing year, but on the realm of reality it’s one that deep down in thematic pulse reminds us to stay true to the kind of human remorse and compassion that keeps any situation from being ten times worse than it actually could be, solidifying that we are all in this world together, for better or worse. This film was originally moved from a summer release to a late September arrival, but in my opinion should embrace the limitations of its handicap, not only for the escapism that is enriched in the world illustrated throughout the picture, but also because it offers a much-necessary droplet of hope in a world so currently bleak and a shell of its heralded identity.

– Fluid storytelling. What kept much of the film fresh for me from running redundant through its repetitive set up and deliveries is a combination of plotting twists and character turns throughout the film that keep you tightly invested to what’s unveiling behind each turn. These constantly elevate and redefine the stakes in a way that extends the chaos far beyond what persists in the sky, playing way to a newfound nightmare world that brings out the worst in its citizens fighting so feverishly for freedom. In fact, the film is at its best when it often breaks conventions to this tight and narrow path that we expect the movie to go on, and then taking our lead protagonists through a night of terror and hostility that neither they nor we expected when everything initially felt so open and shut on their road to resolution. This not only gives Butler and Baccarin a simultaneous meaning of importance within the script, but also better helps to flesh out their characterizations in a way that quite too often falls by the wayside in disaster genre juggernauts.

– Waugh’s vision. There’s a lot to enjoy and indulge in with Ric’s unique scope on this respective subgenre that even before this film felt about twenty years past its shelf life in pop culture flavor. Waugh does make some mistakes along the way with his presentation of action set pieces, but his forte seems relevant on those matters outside of the action, which combine enough social commentary, psychological sentimentality for its characters and family ideals, and of course unabashed urgency that offer very few moments of breather in between these tense interactions. It instills a weight within this film that proves its depth ahead of other surface level effects saturations like “2012” or “The Day After Tomorrow”, and makes much of “Greenland” stand out ahead of the crowd because it has something to say emotionally that instills more weight to the plot than that of its meteor counterpart.

– General characterization. It can be antagonizing in a movie when the people you are supposed to be rooting for have these deep personal flaws that make them anything other than ideal protagonists. But in a movie like “Greenland”, a film firmly focused on documenting humans and their response to the vulnerability of coming under pressure it’s appreciated. In my opinion, these characters are neither good or bad, but human above all else, and confront their past mistakes with the kind of internal heft that plays heavily into each of their responses in the foreground. On an expositional standpoint, it’s brilliantly written because we kind of learn about the relationship between this family as we’re going, even though initially we sense that something isn’t quite serene about their estranged home lives. It proves that vital time was placed into the pawns moving in and around the chessboard, and kept me firmly invested into their well being because I felt like, for once, I could actually relate to their movements and intentions.

– The performances. Butler is obviously right at home with a genre that has nearly unanimously dominated the entirety of his career. What is beneficially added, however, is that Gerard’s John never feels like a superhero, but an everyday John whose intelligence is his most defining quality. Monica Baccarin also supplants a pivotal importance to the movie’s promiscuity, in that she flexes much of the emotional muscle that conveys itself towards the mother’s in the audience. Baccarin’s chemistry with Butler is especially resonant throughout the film, feeling like a lived-in marriage that wears the consequences of the past histories between them, but also fully illustrates the love and connection that simultaneously breeds during moments of concern. Scott Glenn also pops up to make a meaningful cameo during the movie’s third act, and steals as much of your attention with his heartfelt deliveries without chewing any of the scenery for distraction along the way.

– Logical influx. I’m not commending this movie for being some brilliant piece of factual cinema, just saying that it is refreshing to see an action movie, especially one starring Gerard Butler, that doesn’t get lost in the physics of its own ambitious plot device. There are some moments of ridiculousness, like worldwide radiation that apparently goes away in nine months, but as a whole there’s an appreciated kind of realism kept contained inside its clutches that never lets the material escape on a boat to fantasy island. There are occasional news briefings that drop in to push along the story’s conflict, but there’s never an approach to answer why this planet is suddenly learning about it, and why they haven’t done anything to halt its momentum. I appreciate disaster movies more when the disaster actually happens, and some idea of lunacy doesn’t prevent the inevitable, deeming the plot conflict irrelevant.

NEGATIVES

– Lukewarm action. If intense sequences of devastation are what you’re coming to “Greenland” for, you will be disappointed with the back burner approach given to its most memorable of material. This gets off to a rough start with some underwhelmingly cheap computer generation that even colorfully doesn’t register with the kind of authenticity that the live action property textures surrounding it breathe with. Aside from this, the set pieces themselves are completely dull, and lacking of any kind of imagination to make them anything memorable past an hour after seeing them. There is destruction throughout the film to convey what is transpiring in frame, but far too often the impact is felt through this tight character lens that doesn’t accurately convey the scope of citywide destruction that receives a tell-and-not-show approach far too often.

– Commercialization. There must be something in his contract that requires Gerard Butler to sell his soul to Budweiser Beer, for the way it dominates the attention of nearly every movie he stars in, and “Greenland” is no exception. Spread across three different scenes in three different places, we are fortunate enough to see some soulless advertising in the convenience of every character’s brew of choice being the self-described “King of Beers”, which grows funnier every time I hear it come out of my mouth. Shameless self-promotion is always a huge error in filmmaking for me because it often breaks my immersive investment to the film in hopes of selling a few products, and garnering a few bucks. If done once in the film, it can easily be forgiven and overlooked in the grand scheme of things, but the fact that this movie commits it three different times in only my first viewing of the film makes it more of the same from blockbuster movies not confident that they will recoup their bloated budget. This BUTLERweiser is for you.

– Erratic camera work. Waugh’s biggest offense as a filmmaker, and one that condemns this film’s on-ground approach disappointingly in a series of shots, is a consistency in camera composition that suffers through many of the cliches of the current action genre landscape. The claustrophobia of the tight knit proximity often keeps us at shoulder or back level during scenes on the run, and the shaking camera capturing jarring instances of imagery really distorts the sequence detection, making it difficult for us the audience to fully comprehend what is taking shape. I wish Hollywood would return to the days when wide angles and still frame photography donned itself across the cinematic landscape, capturing the bigger picture with the kind of skill for craft that allows us to absorb the carnage from the many different perspectives. Unfortunately, since “Saving Private Ryan”, an assortment of imitators have tried to emulate shaking camera in a way that feeds into the aggression of the sequence, and often create a bigger problem in photography that defeats the purpose.

– One logic loop. While the majority of the movie’s material, far and wide, remains grounded in its approach to science fiction, there is one plot convenience early in the first act so illogically rendered that it only existed to further along the plot, and made no sense the longer you think about it. MINOR SPOILERS HERE. Nathan, the little boy of the story, suffers from type 2 diabetes, which requires him to take insulin shots every couple hours. The family is banned from entering the plane to Greenland because of this condition. You’re telling me the government didn’t already know about this kid’s condition ahead of time? Wouldn’t that stop them from giving this family access to the plane? On top of this, Butler and Baccarin have to shout that the boy has diabetes as loud as possible, so the movie will have a reason to get them kicked off of the plane. How else would they further the plot and conflict to get to their destination? Pure laziness.

My Grade: 6/10 or C-