Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D
Call it “Jules Verne for Dummies.” Not so much a straight adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel as an adventure of family bonding inspired by the novel, this adventure thriller is silly summer fun if you’re not looking for much in the way of brains or originality. The film’s 3-D presentation (the way it’s intended to be seen; don’t go into a 2-D theatre by mistake) helps by making things pop some, but it doesn’t help much. A good adventure yarn is more about thrills and things that come out to bite you; this film wants to be about more than that. Alas, the filmmakers (none of whom are familiar to this reviewer; director Eric Brevig is making his debut) play it safe, and have the requisite happy ending with the kiss by the main characters who didn’t even know each other before the film started.
Brendan Fraser stars as Trevor, a science professor at an unnamed university, whose research is just skating by since his brother Max disappeared on an expedition 10 years ago. Nothing with him nor his sister-in-law has been the same since, which makes the prospect of taking car of his young nephew Sean (“Bridge to Terabithia’s” Josh Hutcherson) for 10 days while his mother finds them a new home in Canada for them to start over. When Trevor’s research (which he shared with his brother) has an unusual happening occur, he and Josh make for Iceland, and hire the daughter of a famed fellow volcanic researcher (Anita Briem). When they get stuck in a cave after a violent thunderstorm, that’s when the real adventure begins.
For a film that looks like it was made for considerably less than what a film like this would normally be made for (guess New Line was penny pinching after “Lord of the Rings”), the B-movie qualities of the visual effects and the acting come through nicely. This isn’t a film intended to go mano-a-mano with the likes of “The Dark Knight” and “Indiana Jones” in overall box-office, but to be a fun diversion from those sometimes self-indulgent offerings. On that level, it works, mainly because as he’s shown in “The Mummy” movies (of which I’m not a fan, but anyway) and other films like “Blast From the Past” and “George of the Jungle,” Fraser is a goofy and enjoyable top-lining star. You can’t help but enjoy his performance, even if everything around him is dumbed-down. He has an easy rapport with Hutcherson and Briem, and the good sense to not take things around him too seriously. Wise move; as good as the movie looks in its’ digitized 3-D glory, you don’t believe a single moment of it. But that’s the point. This is the type of escapism people will flock to when they need a diversion from the pressures of life, and while this summer has provided much better examples, for the less-discerning moviegoer, I support their support of this effort. It’s not entirely my cup-of-tea, but I’ve seen worse.
