Journey to the Center of the Earth
Brendan Fraser has become
the king of the modern B-movie. Like Troy Donahue and Leslie Nielsen
before him, you don't go to a Brendan Fraser film looking for Oscar quality
(though he did have a significant role in the Oscar-winning ensemble
Crash), you go looking for old-fashioned popcorn thrills.
Fraser has the good looks,
the chiseled jaw and the just slightly goofy intensity of 50s matinee idols
- with just a hint of new-millennium irony.
Many of his films are
revamps of older franchises - some good (The Mummy, Looney Tunes: Back in
Action), many not-so-good (George of the Jungle, Dudley Do-Right, The
Mummy 2).
Journey to the Center of
the Earth is one of the good ones. Not perfect, mind you, but fine
mindless old-school cinema - a tribute to old school action films which is
both beguilingly contemporary and sweetly square. It is even filmed in
3D!
I did not see the 3D
version, so lots of scenes of things being thrown or spit out at the screen
were just a little distracting on a 2D screen, though it looked like in 3D the effects would
be cool if seen the way it was meant to be. (I just couldn't bring
myself to wear the silly glasses in my living room, and besides I never find
that 3D works as well on a television screen as in a theater.)
Journey to the Center of
the Earth is both sort of a remake and at the same time a loving tribute
to the old film of the same name and the Jules Verne novel it was based upon.
It has new characters, a new basic storyline but many of the same adventures
and locations. In fact, the main characters of the film are rather
obsessed to prove that the original book was not fiction as the world
has always assumed, but was actually based on a real life occurrence.
Fraser plays Trevor, a
scientist whose older brother Max was always determined to find the gateway
to Verne's world at the Earth's core. When that brother suddenly
disappeared about a decade before, Trevor took over the obsession - hoping
that if he found the portal he may find Max.
When his nephew Sean (Josh
Hutcherson) - who was too young to remember his father well before the
disappearance - is visiting Trevor, Trevor finds some clues to the location
in with some of Max's belongings. Trevor and Sean fly up to Iceland,
where they hook up with Hannah (Anita Briem), a beautiful local guide.
This all leads to a series
of adventures which include falling amazing lengths, running from dinosaurs,
fighting off man-eating plants, clutching to volcano ledges and riding a
geiser.
None of this is especially
original (in particular, a runaway mine car scene seemed disturbingly
similar to a sequence done years ago in Indiana Jones and the Temple of
Doom), but mostly Journey recycles its predecessors with style.
Journey to the Center of
the Earth is fun, exciting, humorous and interesting - but honestly not
overly memorable.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2008 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: October 25, 2008.
