‘Greenland 2: Migration’
By escaping to Thule Air Base in the title country of the movie “Greenland,” the Garrity family narrowly survived Earth’s near-total destruction. In the sequel, five years after the apocalyptic event, we catch up with the Garritys (Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin) and their 15-year-old son (Roman Griffin Davis) just as the base they’ve been calling home is wrecked by an earthquake followed by a tsunami, because why stop at one? They somehow manage to make it to Britain in a lifeboat, and from there proceed to France. They are looking not for the last delicious cheeses in the world, but for a near-mythical crater area where wild life and plants are rumored to be making a comeback.
Admittedly “Greenland 2” is not quite as good as its predecessor, a gem of a survival story, but this largely has to do with the weaker script. Fortunately, Ric Roman Waugh, who directed both, continues to show a solid grasp of action filmmaking as he takes us from one set piece to another, and Butler and Baccarin function well together as a sturdy couple. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind seeing more entries in the “Greenland” series.
In many zombie movies, the exact nature of what makes the dead come back to life, or something that approximates life, is left vague: an experiment gone wrong, a lab leak, a new virus. We don’t know what was the experimental weapon that accidentally detonated over the Australian island of Tasmania, in Zak Hilditch’s movie, but we sure know who messed up: the United States. Half a million people succumbed to neural failure, but then a few of them stir again to show signs of activity. They can walk, for example, and they grind their teeth loudly and obsessively — one of Hilditch’s creepiest, most effective ideas.
In the middle of this is Ava (Daisy Ridley, from the “Star Wars” movies), who’s volunteered to recover bodies. What she really wants, though, is to find out what happened to her husband, who was at a retreat in the now-quarantined zone. “We Bury the Dead” essentially is a thoughtful road movie as Ava makes her way through deserted roads and abandoned houses (you know you’re not in America because nobody seems to feel the need to stockpile firearms or prance around in camo outfits). As so often happens with zombie stories, Ava’s journey is about facing grief and letting herself embrace life again, but Hilditch proceeds delicately. Even the undead look forlorn.
Speaking of firearms … The subgenre of jacked military wielding big guns is far from a personal favorite, but I am a sucker for well-directed action, which is why this shoot’ em up aboard a spacecraft kept me watching.
The director William Kaufman knows where to put a camera and how to edit scenes in such a way that you can always follow who’s where and why. That’s definitely a plus here, because the story involves a special forces commando, led by Kelly (Max Martini), engaging in gunfight first in a labyrinthine urban setting, then on a labyrinthine ship, to which the men have been abducted. Their alien captors look like a cross between the creature from the Black Lagoon and a Predator, and they are not happy to see their human prisoners roam the hallways. The set often looks like a gigantic storage space, complete with oversize containers, but the script actually justifies that aesthetic.
“Osiris” follows the soldiers as they try to escape and meet other human prisoners — one of them a Russian played by Linda Hamilton. More satisfying than watching the soldiers fire what feels like a million rounds of ammo is the way Kaufman sticks the movie’s landing. It would be interesting to see what he could do with a bigger budget.
While she was listening to a song by the Los Angeles band Death Valley Girls, Micah (Mia Danelle) becomes possessed by a sound wave. So begins Brando Topp’s debut feature, which feels like the cinematic equivalent of the kind of low-budget, lovely indie-rock record you recommend to simpatico friends. Micah’s boyfriend, Shannon (Will Tranfo), appears unfazed by this new development, and at first he goes along as Sound, as she is now known, is overwhelmed by new physical sensations — “I never had a mouth before,” she says, messily devouring a sandwich.
Before long, however, Shannon grows frustrated, and Sound gets more support from new acquaintances like, say, Rita (Quinn Marcus), whom she meets at a party. The movie explores Sound’s discovery of what it means to be human, and a big part of that involves relationships. The strains between Micah and Shannon bubble up as he gets frustrated and testy, but still, Sound learns that there is a lot of wonderfulness to go around in this crazy world. And it’s fun to realize that with her.
A major reference for Tom Ruddock’s British indie is “1984,” with Alec (Ryan Gage) standing in for Winston as a man who realizes he’s pretty much done with the oppressive surveillance system he’s helped sustain. Alec works for a company associated with EyeLight, a technology that allows users to essentially modify reality on the spot. It basically filters reality, and in the process keeps tabs on moves and thoughts — it feels like tomorrow’s version of Meta’s smart glasses, but done as a small light affixed to one’s temple.
Over the course of the movie, EyeLight becomes ever more invasive, its use ever more pervasive. Physical items are declared not just obsolete but illegal, for example, as people are forced to digitize their lives — EyeLight can’t manipulate analog images. A major symbol of Alec’s resistance to the new world order is that he secretly holds on to his old-fashioned camera. He is not alone in defiance, however, and joins forces with the equally disgruntled Jade (Lara Lemon). The sense that those developments are not far-off in our real world is what makes “The Draw” so interesting. Ruddock is not as comfortable integrating the Draw — a “Running Man”-like game in which candidates must evade being killed for eight hours — into the overall story, but never mind: You are likely to be discussing the movie’s ideas afterward more than its plot.
