Taking its cue from Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact (1998), Greenland rejects the nonstop action and CGI set pieces of films like 2012 and Armageddon for a far more powerful family drama as we are introduced to the Garritys just as the recently-discovered comet named ‘Clarke’ thunders toward Earth. Watch Greenland now on Prime Video.
With the exception of The Wave in 2015, the disaster movie has had a rough ride over recent years in quality, direction and story, so I’ll be honest: my hopes for the Comet wipeout drama Greenland were low as it quietly slipped onto Prime. Greenland’s production was riddled with problems from the departure of its lead actor, Chris Evans, to the loss of the original director, Neill Blomkamp; one could say the disaster flick was facing doom at the outset! So imagine my surprise when Greenland arrived and gripped me from the opening credits to the finale!
Taking its cue from Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact (1998), Greenland rejects the nonstop action and CGI set pieces of films like 2012 and Armageddon for a far more powerful family drama as we are introduced to the Garritys just as the recently-discovered comet named ‘Clarke’ thunders toward Earth. While there isn’t much new in the story that unfolds, Greenland manages to hold the viewer’s attention and even pull off the trick of, at times, feeling fresh and different to what’s come before it. Waugh’s film bathes in the chaos of armageddon and humans’ vastly different responses and behaviours as the comet nears. Some people are violent, greedy, and self-centred, while others go out of their way to help their fellow humans at any cost, offering us hope that humanity could and would find a way to remain “human” in the face of destruction.
Central to Greenland’s story is Gerard Butler’s John Garrity, a structural engineer in Atlanta, but while many may expect Butler to launch into a series of fast action sequences and one-liners, he is calmer, considered and “normal.” It’s a pleasure to see Butler jettison the usual all-action man for something more real in a disaster movie that ticks all the boxes but never descends into simplistic cliches. Much of this success comes from Chris Sparling’s intelligent screenplay, and while Greenland may not be top of the class, it’s a delightfully thrilling surprise on so many levels.
Follow Us