There are a few cute moments, and a couple of memorable CGI setpieces, but where's the real magic, the genuine wonder? 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' takes the legitimately awe-inspiring ideas of Verne and turns them into a feeble, rather cynical carnival attraction. Without the 3-D, 'Journey' doesn't rank as much at all. I'm sure I'm not the first reviewer to comment that the film is more akin to an elongated Disneyland ride, or a videogame with a few dialogue scenes thrown in to pad out the action. Watching 'Journey to the Center to the Earth' in 2-D only exacerbates the problems. There is so little connective story tissue here that 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' on the home screen starts to feel like an endurance test by the end of the film's scant 92 minutes. Smeared in red and blue, all the endless scenes of actors poking things at the camera or CGI dinosaurs roaring at us become a bit more tiresome. The dimensional effect still works well, but the impact is nowhere near the same as it is at the multiplex or on IMAX. The effect is diminished on Blu-ray, however, not only by the more home-bound screen size but also the use of red/blue anaglyph 3-D (rather than the full-color we're used to in theaters). The real reason to see 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' - and the only reason the film exists at all - is to marvel at its 3-D. It's saying something when the most three-dimensional character in the movie is the little kid - but Hutcherson can't carry the feeble script all on his own little back, so by the time of the narratively-ridiculous climax we've long stopped caring about any of this Spielberg-lite melodrama. ![]() Hannah is likewise so loosely sketched that she has little to do but spout scientific stuff and run away from CGI creatures along with Trevor and Josh. It doesn't help that Fraser plays up the manic slapstick, which makes Trevor into even more of a buffoon. Trevor is such a doofus that quite frankly I hoped he'd fall straight to the Earth's core and explode. The characters are not particularly memorable, so we care little for them right from the get-go. The 2008 version of 'Journey to the Center of the Earth 'is a failure as a story. Their journey back out will be fraught with action, danger, and the solutions to more than a few long-held mysteries. Within minutes there's a mishap, and the trio find themselves literally falling into the center of the Earth. ![]() Soon after they arrive, they meet Hannah (Anita Briem), the daughter of another missing scientist. On the eve of the ten-year anniversary of his geologist brother's (Jean-Michael Pare) mysterious disappearance, Trevor takes his teenaged nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson) out for a ten-day trip to the chilly wilderness. Brendan Fraser stars as Professor Trevor Anderson, a schlumpy and unreliable teacher with a taste for adventure. The story takes only the barest skeletal outline of Verne's story and hangs a bunch of action sequences along it like a clothesline. audiences will pay to see just about anything in 3-D, as long as the effects are good and lots of stuff comes flying at their faces in CGI. ![]() Given the film's flimsy story and wafer-thin characters, that's quite an accomplishment. Breaking out of the confines of IMAX, 'Journey' played in thousands of mainstream multiplexes across America (thanks to a concerted effort on behalf of New Line and major theater chains) and managed to secure a more-than-respectable final domestic gross of $100 million. Editor's Note: Not to mention at least ten other TV and direct to video incarnations according to IMDB), 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' is the first large-scale 3-D release in over two decades. Yes, a gimmick is still a gimmick, but thanks to digital technology and major studio budgets, this may truly be 3-D's renaissance period.Īn adaptation of Jules Verne's classic novel of the same name (and itself a remake of the 1959 picture starring James Mason. Gigantic IMAX screens nationwide are flush with 3-D films, with everything from U2 to Batman and Harry Potter now comin' at ya in three dimensions. Now, here we are in the '00s, and 3-D appears poised to be modern cinema's great box office gold mine. Miraculously, the silly glasses and silver screens then made a comeback in the '80s with lots of cheapie exploitation flicks and cash-in studio franchise pictures, only for the fad to once again fade out in a matter of months. This dimensional gimmick enjoyed immense popularity in the '50s before burning out faster than a Kmart light bulb. ![]() There's an old joke that says the only things that will be left standing after an atomic bomb are cockroaches, and Cher.
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