A Disaster-ously average movie - A Reggie Review of Greenland

Amazon prime video is not known for being one of the best streaming services for movies. So, when Greenland appeared it may have come as a surprise for most and posed the question; is it a good surprise or not? As always my breakdown will include some spoilers so please skip to the final breakdown if you want to avoid those.

Greenland is this years disaster movie, starring Gerard Butler (John Garrity) best known for his chiseled abs in 300 and his reprising role in the 'Fallen' movies. Co stars Morena Baccarin portray John's wife (Allison) and Roger Dale Floyd their son (Nathan) as well as several other faces along the way you may recognise such as Roy from 'The US Office' (Denman) and Bill from 'Kill Bill' (Glenn). The movie, directed by Ric Roman Waugh, follows a simple formula seen many times before in movies such as 2012 and San Andreas; in that its core focus is that of a families struggles and fight for survival amidst a catastrophic, worldwide event.

The film, on the surface, exhibits interesting aspects of family loyalties and the dark human natures when it comes to survival of the fittest however; if you scratch a little at the surface you quickly unearth some questionable plot decisions and poor character development. The plot is simple - world is coming to an end, family get separated and fight to rejoin one another in order to head to a 'safe place' (Greenland).

I found myself on multiple occasions questioning whether the actions, of the characters, truly resembled that of a real life person or whether they were just done to stretch the films plot and push the run time out to the 2 hour mark. An example of this would be when John decides it would be a better idea to leave his family alone, inside a chaotic military airbase, to search for lost medication (for Nathans diabetes), back through angry mobs and countless security checks, rather than simply approaching personnel and requesting some. We know the reason for this poor decision making is needed in order for the films progression (as it's the starting point of the main plot of him searching for his family) but it just felt unrealistic and surprising.

Another aspect of the film that felt unnecessary; was the development (or lack of) of relationship between John and Allison. We learn early on that there's some bad blood between them but it's only really there to warrant scenes, between John and Nathan, whereby they talk about never separating... well that's foreshadowing for sure. The film tries to bring this back around later on with a shock reveal that John cheated on Allison but it's not explored enough, nor does it make you reevaluate anything of the characters current actions or morals. Now you could look at it and say the films plot of John fighting to rejoin his family is a metaphor for fighting through marriage difficulties, but it'd be a stretch for sure.

There's plenty of opportunity for some serious character development due to several unimaginable acts thrown upon the family such as John having to kill someone in order to defend himself from an attack, Allison leaving her father behind to die and Nathan being kidnapped by a panicked, desperate couple. However all these horrific acts are actually only there to once again stretch the films run time out. When John is prompted to talk about murdering someone he just replied "I'm just having a really bad day" and pushes it aside. Allison spends the majority of the movie wanting to get home to her father only to rather easily turn and drive the other direction when opportunity arises with no alteration on her mood and Nathan doesn't seem remotely affected by the likely trauma of being kidnapped, once he is reunited with his family.

The soundtrack is one of the better parts of the movie, with David Buckley (Jason Bourne and The Town) again managing to perfectly intertwine a real feel of suspense and panic, during pivotal scenes throughout the film, with beautifully created pieces of music. There is a scene in particular whereby John's frantically searching for his family and the music had me on the edge of my seat with its thumping bass and intentionally panicked arrangement.

Ultimately, the films a popcorn flick and I don't think it really aims to be anything more; but with such a good cast of strong actors, some visually stunning CGI segments and interesting scenes showing the evil some people have within themselves in times of crisis, it had the potential to be so much more. Not a bad film by any means, and one I'd consider watching again for sure, but not quite as a good as others from the same genre.

Reggie review - 6/10

Greenland | Official Trailer

Watch Greenland | Prime Video