If you’re looking to cap the year off with a hint of the apocalypse and more than a little family drama, then HBO Max has the movie for you. And this action-packed disaster flick has made its way to the top 4 spot on the FlixPatrol Top 10 Streaming list just in time for its sequel to release in theaters next month.
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Greenland stars Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin, and centers around a man named John Garrity (Butler), his estranged wife, Allison (Baccarin), and their young son as they risk their lives searching for a safe place to hide as a comet large enough to decimate the planet hurtles toward Earth. As the cities around them are leveled, the Garritys continue their journey, taking a gamble on a last-minute flight to a potential safe haven.
It’s A Decent Disaster Flick With A Lot Of Potential
The film landed better with critics than it did with general audiences, earning a 77% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, with most agreeing that it was surprisingly entertaining despite the potentially overdone apocalypse premise. “A surprisingly grounded disaster movie featuring Gerard Butler’s best performance in years. The thought-provoking premise and emotional focus elevate this above other movies in this popular subgenre,” says Ruth Marimas of FlixChatter Film Blog. Cody Dericks of Next Best Picture agrees, saying, “For most of its runtime, Greenland surprises at just about every opportunity. It continually takes every decision that a mindless disaster movie might make and does the complete opposite.”
More casual viewers were less charitable, though, rating Greenland only a 63% on the Popcorn meter. One viewer noted, “If it were the first-ever disaster movie about a comet hitting the Earth, it would be interesting. This is a questionable regurgitation of the material seen so many times that it looks like yet another coffee cake you have bought so many times: too familiar with pointless plot and emotionally thunderously flat.” Another agreed, elaborating on the disconnect with the plot: “Decent disaster movie filled with a few too many tropes and poor ‘science’ that didn’t track as remotely realistic or even consistent. The movie should have been the first twenty minutes and maybe the last hour, but all the crap about the insulin and the family being separated and the kidnapping and assault were completely unnecessary, almost like a different movie. You forgot all about the comet for a good forty minutes of the movie. Pretty much a ripoff of Deep Impact and Armageddon. Just go watch those movies.”
While it seems like Greenland isn’t bringing anything new to the disaster genre, it’s still a good way to kill a few hours. And the sequel is debuting in theaters in the US on January 9th, so now is the time to stream this particular apocalypse.
Did you enjoy Greenland? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and then head over to the ComicBook forum to see what other movie fans are saying.
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Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme -
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