Brendan Fraser stars as Trevor Anderson, a geologist whose
brother, Max, has gone missing ten years ago while working in the field. Trevor’s
keeping the flame of his brother’s work alive by keeping track of the last
remaining sensors that Max had installed all over the world. Max was a Vernian,
a rabid fan of author Jules Verne who thought his works were based on true
stories. Max’s favorite novel was Verne’s Journey To The Center Of The Earth,
and he did everything in his power to try and prove that there was a lost world
beneath the earth’s crust. When Max’s son Sean (Josh Hutcherson) comes to stay
with his Uncle Trevor for a few days, the boy inadvertently discovers a clue
which leads both of them on a worldwide quest to find out what happened to their
missing brother and father.
After meeting up with a pretty Icelandic mountain guide named Hannah Ásgeirsson
(Anita Briem), Trevor and Sean find one of the last working sensors left behind
by Max, and accidentally wind up (cue trumpets) on a Journey To The Center Of
The Earth! In 3-D, no less! Fraser tries to invoke the same charm here that
served him so well in the Mummy movies, and Briem is engaging in her own right,
but this Journey pretty much left me cold. The DVD I reviewed offers the film in
3-D, with four sets of glasses, which is a nice idea. And while this was fun for
a while, it became a bit of an eye-strain after a full half hour, forcing me to
turn off the film and take a break every so often. Thankfully, the film is also
available on the DVD set in regular 2-D…and therein lies another problem.
This is one of those films where it was mainly created to be seen in 3-D, and
once you take that away, it becomes flat--in more ways than one. While the 2-D
edition looks good visually, the film itself is very shallow, with a theme-park
ride mentality to it that avoids any substance whatsoever. Instead, it gives us
predictable thrills that are derivative of other movies, like the mine shaft car
ride from Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, and having the characters being
chased by a T-Rex as in Jurassic Park. And the good actors here are wasted in
trying to bring to life characters that are, for the most part, cardboard
cut-out figures. If you can get your hands on the 3-D version, it might be fun
for the kids in your household to experience--but otherwise, this is one Journey
that’s best avoided.
--SF
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