Greenland (2020)

A comet’s passing becomes an extinction-level catastrophe and a battle for survival for an estranged family.

Fast-edited action films are a Hollywood trademark. There is a misconception, though, that the faster a film is edited, the better results will yield. I’ll prove my point in a second. The beginning of the first act is quite formulaic, with the camera set on the tripod, playing out exactly as it is supposed to. But once I was about to sigh in despair, to my surprise, just before everything goes tits up, Ric Roman Waugh dismounts the camera. He goes on a road trip where the narrative’s delay of resolution stretches the suspense to very high levels. I don’t know if that was a conscious decision, but I must say that Greenland becomes a quite realistic, intense thriller where most humans become scarier than the comet’s nucleus. But very touching is the vast minority who, till the very end, dedicate and sacrifice their lives to do as much good as they can when humanity needs it the most (Comparisons with our current pandemic are most welcome).

Gerald Butler and Morena Baccarin go through absolute hell, and with them, the young Roger Dale Floyd. All three of them are absolutely thrilling! This isn’t like the Geostorm (2017) bullshit that even Butler didn’t wanna be in. Everyone believes in this one and works as hard as possible to make it work. And it does work, indeed. My breath was taken by Baccarin’s performance when her kid was abducted (no more spoilers). I can’t imagine a mother acting any other way.

The point I wanted to prove is that War of the Worlds (2005), by far my favourite apocalyptic thriller, is, arguably, the slowest edited film of its kind. The same applies to Jurassic Park (1993). So, don’t get fooled by multi-chopped action sequences; it’s an illusion. Greenland invests in both character and story development and is definitely worth a watch. The two things that seem problematic to me and could have changed are the title, which gives away a ton of information, and the ending, which, like Signs (2002), should have ended when cutting to the prolonged darkness. See and decide for yourselves.

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Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!

Stay safe!