Gerard Butler has faced the potential end of the world (or at least a substantial part of it) in enough movies that by the time he’s up against a “planet killer” comet in Greenland, he mostly just looks desperate and weary. That’s actually the right look for Butler’s John Garrity, an Atlanta structural engineer just trying to save his family from the catastrophic effects of the comet raining death down upon the Earth. Although John occasionally has to resort to violence to keep his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) and son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd) safe, he’s no action hero, and Greenland isn’t a Roland Emmerich-style disaster epic, mostly because it’s working from a much smaller budget.
There’s one big explosion in the movie’s first half-hour and then not much spectacle until the finale, and in between, the main danger to the Garrity family is other people, not fiery death from above. The comet, known as Clarke, at first appears to be harmless, but there are ominous (and obvious) bits of foreshadowing in the news reports early in the movie, as reporters explain that the comet has arrived from another solar system and was completely unknown to scientists until a few weeks ago. Sure enough, the expected dazzling lights in the sky soon turn deadly, as the comet breaks into numerous small fragments that strike Earth with destructive force, starting by wiping out Tampa, Florida.
As John and his family watch the chaos on TV, he gets an alert on his phone that they’ve been selected for a secret government shelter program, which is whisking the chosen few (picked for their particular professional skills) to secure underground locations in Greenland to ride out the disaster. The Garritys are directed to a nearby Air Force base, but their efforts are thwarted by a variety of obstacles and contrivances, which separate John from Allison and Nathan for a substantial portion of the movie.
Most of the story is about the societal breakdown that happens almost instantly once people are told that the end of the world is coming. There’s even a 48-hour countdown before the largest comet fragment is set to hit, wiping out 75 percent of plant and animal life on Earth. Elsewhere, a radio report casually refers to “the inevitable collapse of our nation” as looters ravage stores. The Garritys miss their initial flight to Greenland because they have to go back for insulin for the diabetic Nathan, and while John is on a truck of refugees bound for Canada, Allison and Nathan hitch a ride from a menacing couple (David Denman and Hope Davis, both underused) who are not nearly as helpful as they seem.
Eventually the family members converge at the folksy ranch owned by Allison’s father Dale (Scott Glenn), where they plan for a final push to get themselves to safety. Aside from the periodic news reports, Greenland never shows the efforts of scientists or the military or government officials to stop the impending disaster. This isn’t Armageddon or Deep Impact; it’s a turgid domestic drama, with as much focus on John and Allison’s marital problems as on the prospect of the human race’s extinction.
Butler is better at glowering and punching than he is at emoting, so the moments of family togetherness don’t carry much weight. There’s a moment of potential moral ambiguity early in the movie, as the Garritys are headed for their designated flight to safety, and a neighbor begs them to take her young daughter, while John refuses. But he does so out of compassion rather than selfishness, and he’s generally so blandly upstanding that when he steals a car to get where he needs to go, he leaves a note and promises to return it.
Director Ric Roman Waugh (who previously worked with Butler on Angel Has Fallen) goes overboard on the treacly, sun-dappled flashbacks to the family in happier times, and Baccarin readily summons tears but doesn’t give Allison much depth. That leaves the movie with suspense and spectacle, and there’s no real sense that the Garritys will be separated forever or that they won’t eventually survive the disaster.
The spectacle is largely lacking, too, although Waugh stages one exciting and impressive set piece toward the end of the movie, as the characters are stuck in gridlock on a rural highway when pieces of flaming debris start raining down, and they have to dodge the incoming projectiles while fleeing for cover. It achieves the right balance between blockbuster-style action and smaller-scale danger, but it’s the only time that Greenland gets that balance right. When Waugh finally goes big for the finale and epilogue, the result is underwhelming, and the extinction-level event makes all the preceding fistfights and foot chases seem especially irrelevant.
At best, Greenland is an overgrown B-movie, which is what both Butler and Waugh have specialized in. But it’s too serious to provide campy fun, and not exciting enough to power past its many lulls. The end of the world comes off as just another inconvenience on the way to a rote family reconciliation.
Starring Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd, Scott Glenn, David Denman and Hope Davis, Greenland is available Friday, Dec. 18 on VOD.