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Movie Review: Journey to the Center of the Earth
Visual excitement makes 'Journey' a fun ride
By John Wirt
jwirt@theadvocate.com
Advocate movie critic
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Its 3D effects aside, the new big-screen adaptation of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth unreels like a Hollywood adventure film made many decades ago.
The movie’s big on old-fashioned thrills, everything from a high-velocity rollercoaster ride to a hungry T-Rex snapping away in pursuit of his next meal.
As for the story, that’s nearly nonexistent. It’s basically the old scientist-perceived-to-be-nuts-proves-he’s-not-nuts, but not before he and the film’s other two principals experience the wonders of the world below the Earth’s surface and endure the high-wire dangers therein.
The slim story helps make this reinvention of Journey to the Center of the Earth breezy, if innocuous, entertainment. It’s a short movie, filled with action plus occasional nods to the importance of family and respectful acknowledgement of those passed on. Two principals have lost fathers in recent years and a third character has lost a brother.
First-time director Eric Brevig, an Oscar-winner for visual effects whose previous credits include Total Recall and Pearl Harbor, shows a knack for keeping things moving. And no sooner does one incredible thing happen than another and another and another follow.
Except for brief scenes that bookend the film’s adventures beneath the Earth’s surface, Journey to the Center of the Earth is all about the wonders and excitement that the film’s trio of explorers experience in a parallel world few humans have seen.
Such wonder, no doubt, is enhanced in the 3D format, which may also explain why the film’s director and screenwriters favor the film’s all-important visuals over plot and dialogue.
Brendan Fraser heads the cast as a much-knocked scientist who travels with his 13-year-old nephew to Iceland for a mountain expedition. Josh Hutcherson co-stars as Sean, the nephew, and Anita Briem, playing Hannah, a no-nonsense local mountain guide, completes the film’s underworld explorers.
Fraser, the leading man of the revived Mummy film series, is a familiar face in filmdom’s fantastic worlds. In his latest adventure, Fraser is a lab-bound academic who proves awkward in the field. In fact, he’s an incompetent fool, at least in the beginning. Fraser literally sends himself, his sensible nephew and their expert guide into a new world of trouble.
Of course, Fraser becomes less annoying as he rises to face the incredible obstacles thrown his party’s way. The nerdy professor learns his lessons and discovers his inner action hero.
Also in the traditional of old-fashioned Hollywood, a G-rated romance develops amidst the action and adventure. And once their hazardous journey to the center of the Earth ends, our two heroes and one heroine can live happily ever after — unless there’s a sequel.
About the author:
The movie’s big on old-fashioned thrills, everything from a high-velocity rollercoaster ride to a hungry T-Rex snapping away in pursuit of his next meal.
