Journey to the Center of the Earth

On a quest to find out what happened to his missing brother a scientist his nephew & their mountain guide discover a fantastic & dangerous lost world in the center of the earth. Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 10/28/2008 Starring: Brendan Fraser Anita Briem Rating: Pg

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D is full of whizz-bang demonstrations of how far 3D technology has come--trilobite antennae quivering towards the audience, a T-rex lunging out of the frame, even affable star Brendan Fraser spitting on us--as well as a half-dozen action sequences clearly destined to become videogames or theme park rides. The plot is incidental: When a seismic geologist (Fraser) discovers his lost brother's notes in a copy of the titular Jules Verne novel, he and his nephew (Josh Hutcherson, Bridge to Terabithia, Zathura) head to Iceland. There, joined by a fetching mountain guide (played by Icelandic actress Anita Briem), they get trapped in a cavern and go down, down, down, finally arriving in a primeval underworld full of prehistoric beasts and carnivorous plants. It would be pointless to complain about the empty-headedness of it all; Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D aspires to be a kinesthetic experience. It wants to engage your adrenal glands, not your brain or your heart (the dialogue and characters are so generic, the script may have been cut-and-pasted from previous versions of Verne's book). Fraser, with his goofy handsomeness and accessible presence, provides a reasonably human axis around which all the frantic flying and swooping CGI effects revolve. The movie is as hollow as the world it depicts, but as mindless action movies go, you could do a lot worse. --Bret Fetzer

It's fun and entertaining as long as you watch it just for fun and forget the actual plot.

The 1959 James Mason version is fantastic. Rated G, nice humor, deep story development based on the Verne book. This new version in no-way compares to the 1959 version. If your kids have only seen this new version they are missing out.

First off, the 3D effects did nothing for me except give me a headache. I took off the glasses after 2 minutes because I couldn't tolerate it. And apparently it wasn't just me because my friend felt the same way. As for the movie. Boring!!! Predictable. It lacked energy and there was no where near enough action for an "adventure" movie. There would be a short sequence of potential excitement, and then... nothing. The acting: Ho Hum!! Usually I can at least finish a movie, especially if I paid for it. But not this. My suggestion: invest in something else.

Yay!! This movie proves that excitement, adventure and danger do not automatically equal violence, sex jokes and crude behavior. I keep having to say NO to all of the Superhero movies because of the PG-13 rating. So it was great to be able to say "Yes" to my 7-year-old twin boys for once. This is a "manly" movie. The emotional issues men and boys face in life are handled succinctly, giving this movie more depth than the non-stop action would seem to allow. The 3D effects truly add to the excitement. The few gratuitous/gross ones were just plain old fun & funny. The theater was packed and people actually clapped at the end. I hope Hollywood pays attention and puts out more PG movies of this caliber.

Granted this is an adventure/action film. And granted that it was kept fairly clean for family viewing. Still, I had some problems with the movie. Without going into detail, it sort of mimics the original Jules Verne story. However, it is interesting in that it references the original story as some sort of secret code of a quasi-secret society and implies that it wasn't at all fictional when Verne wrote it.

Here's where it goes wrong. The characters are shallow. The plot is really unoriginal. The special effects are so obviously specially generated effects that they aren't particularly special at all. Even the sentimentalism is very thin.

There were many improbable scenes that require such a stretch of suspension of disbelief to make it work, that it didn't. Another movie I think of, in a similar genre, had no issue with suspension of disbelief. No, in fact, Raiders of the Lost Ark made you believe it was all quite possible. Easily so. Journey to the Center of the Earth did not.

As a side note: we switched from the 3D to the 2D after about 15 minutes into it. It just wasn't that visually appealing as a 3D movie.

This was worth seeing once, and only if you rent the DVD, in my opinion.

This is a an enjoyable movie with a very good story, appealing characters, good special effects and good pacing. Some may say that it isn't very realistic (okay it's not) but it is a fantasy/sci fi adventure flick. Fraser is almost always good in his movies and the other 2 leads are good also. I thought it was great that they hired an Icelandic actress to play an Icelandic character rather than some Hollywood actress struggling along with a phony accent, too. Very well done and good entertainment for the whole family.