Movie Talks Archives

Posted by: Shale at August 2, 2008, 10:33 pm

Topic: Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D Forum: JoBlo

Journey to the Center of the Earth Review by Shale August 2, 2008 Yesterday it was The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor http://www.joblo.com/forums/showpost...&postcount=101 Today it's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Sort of a Brendan Fraser weekend . This action movie which is in 3-D came out on July 11th and with all the other movies this summer I just today got around to seeing it (and only in 2-D). You can tell by some of the shots that they were made for the 3-D effect. I guess I have been hesitant to see this movie because the 1864 Jules Verne sci-fi story is one of his least feasible in science. I saw the 1959 movie with James Mason, Pat Boone and Diane Baker and even as a 15-year-old I had problems with how the center of the earth was lit by some electrical gas at the top of a huge cave that supported an ocean and dinosaurs. I also recently watched a TV movie version of the story with Rick Shroder (who hasn't aged as well as his contemporary child-star Jason Bateman) and still had problems with the underlying story elements. Light at the Center of the Earth (in the most recent remake of this story) By now, with all the remakes everyone must know the basic story that deviates slightly with each telling. This one actually references Verne's story throughout, implying that it wasn't fiction at all but an actual account by an explorer who made it back to tell the tale to Verne. Professor Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser) is a geologist studying plate tectonics which is a good setup to this story since that "theory" was still in dispute among scientists when I saw the obvious fitting of South America into Africa on a school map in the early '50s. His brother Max has disappeared a few years ago and his sister-in-law is dumping his 13-year-old nephew with attitude, Sean (Josh Hutcherson - actually 15) on him for a week. She also brings a box of Max' things for Trevor. In the box is a copy of Verne's "Journey" with cryptic notations throughout. This corresponds to Trevor's research that says they must go to Iceland to look for the volcanic shafts that will take them to the center of the earth. Max was working with a man in Iceland and they hook up with his daughter Hanna (Anita Briem) who, for a price, will guide them up the mountain. Quickly, the story goes that they find the shaft, go down to the center of the earth, see giant fossilized mushrooms, incandescent birds and see evidence of the 19th century expedition and also find Max. They get chased by dinosaurs, cross the sea in a raft where toothy flying fish attack them (a 3-D moment I'm sure) and eventually they get pushed back up to the surface by magma and steam and come out of a volcano in Italy. Trying to Get Back from the Center of the Earth Oh, should I have put a "SPOILER" warning on that. Sorry, if you didn't know Verne's story after 144 years and at least three movies that I know of personally, then I guess it is just ruined for ya. Actually, trying to see Verne's explanation for the light in the cave I found that this movie sticks pretty close to the original story, except the guide was male in Verne's and for our purposes we need a babe for Brendan (and Josh). This was a gimmick movie, built for CGI and 3-D but I enjoyed it and Brendan Fraser was good in his usual comedic-under-fire performance. One thing that was embarrassing but had to be in a 3-D movie was the roller-coaster ride down the mine shaft in an ore car that was right out of Temple of Doom, even to jumping the broken track. It was exhilarating to watch but so obvious a copy that they should have used another vehicle. There were even some very dramatic moments (tear jerking) between Trevor and Sean especially when sharing grief over a missing father and brother.

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