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Movie Review: Journey to the Center of the Earth
by Bill Wine
Searching for his missing brother, a scientist, his nephew, and a mountain guide discover a lost and dangerous world
RATING: PG
GENRE: Action-adventure fantasy
RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2008
RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes
VIOLENCE FACTOR: Several intense action sequences feature peril but not violence.
BAD WORDS: No
RACY? No
OTHER THINGS TO KNOW: It's playing in the Real D 3-D format in selected theaters.
GRANDS:
CRITIQUE:
Judged by the usual standards of movie aesthetics, Journey to the Center of the Earth should have taken a journey — to the center of the cutting-room floor.
The movie is in Real D 3-D, which is fine. Everything else about it is 1-D, which is not.
In Journey to the Center of the Earth, Brendan Fraser plays a scientist who, with the help of his nephew (Josh Hutcherson) and a fetching Icelandic mountain guide (Anita Briem), explores the planet's core with an annotated copy of Jules Verne's 1864 novel of the same name in hand. The novel belonged to the scientist's brother, who disappeared years ago while conducting similar exploratory research.
The movie is the first live-action, narrative feature film to be shot in the digital Real D 3-D process. And the process is the tail that wags the dinosaur here, just one of the creatures that the explorers encounter. If the director could stop reminding us of the 3-D process by drawing inconsequential items toward us every two minutes, and instead pay attention to the characters and the story and the setting, our intraterrestrial, fun-for-the-whole-family adventure might not be so forgettable.
Every take could be better-edited, every character could be more interesting, every set could be more convincing, every special effect could be less kitschy, and every scene could be more impactful. This film amounts to a theme-park ride disguised as a movie, an amusement attraction to experience, not a movie to admire.
Grandchildren of a scientific-bent, might appreciate the subject matter. But the movie will remind some grandparents of all the cheesy movies released decades ago when the 3-D process surfaced, and the gimmick that called for goofy glasses was all that mattered. Is the Real D 3-D stuff groovy? Absolutely. Are the glasses more comfortable? Yep. But the movie itself borders on afterthought, with glasses or otherwise.
GP Rating System:
Four Grands = Bravo, don't miss it
Three Grands = Pretty good, short list it
Two Grands = Just okay, don't dismiss it
One Grand = Yeah, we dissed it
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