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Movie review: Journey to the Center of the Earth
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
It’s safe to say that although it might give it a healthy run for its box office money, the new family adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth—even with the big brother sweetness of actor Brendan Fraser, as an intrepid professor, and even with the movie’s quaintly old-fashioned 3-Dtechnology—won’t displace Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in the hearts of many movie buffs.
Fraser is Trevor, an expert in tectonics, currently boring students in a Continental Drift class. He gets his seismic mojo back when his teenage nephew, Sean (Josh Hutcherson), arrives for a two-week stay, along with some memory-jogging items belonging to Trevor’s brother, Max. His brother died seeking what the writer Jules Verne so vividly spun into a classic literary tale of exploration to earth’s center.
Trevor would love Sean to know how special his father was. Although TIVO and instant messaging appear to be two of the few things to inspire Sean, Trevor is pleasantly surprised when the boy insists he’s joining his uncle on a trip to Iceland.
Max’s dog-eared copy of “Journey” included very instructional notes on the scientist’s research and also some puzzles that Sean’s experience with Google helps solve. Another inspiration for Sean is Hannah (Anita Briem), their guide (at $5,000 a day). Seriously beautiful and brainy, she’s a little skeptical of what she refers to as the “Vernians;” those people who take Verne’s stories as gospel truth. Her father was one of them, and he headed a now-defunct Institute for Progressive Vulcanology.
But, for the price, she’s willing to help Trevor. Reaching the site on a volcano’s summit, which appears to correspond to Max’s data, the first of several fortunate mishaps (and the first of several examples of Hannah saving Trevor’s life). The trio is sent down into the first level of the Earth’s bowels and the challenging start to their amazing journey.
Twenty-story deep holes; flammable magnesium; cave walls studded with precious gemsa roller coaster ride on runaway mine shaft cars; sailing a raft on a stormy, creature-infested inland sea; finding Max’s journal and the answer to why he disappeared; dodging a hungry T-Rex and carnivorous plants; confirming that Verne’s story is indeed based on fact, not fiction. All of this await the intrepid band.
During one of their perils, Trevor has an Indy moment when he grumbles, “I hate field work!” Besides the hazards, there is a bit of romance, a touch of humor, a smidgeon of family bonding and lots of border-line chintzy moments to exploit the 3-D technology (like exploding magma, dinosaur drool dropping on someone’s face, a yo-yo spinning away from someone’s hand, seeds blowing off of a giant dandelion).
Kids will get a kick and hopefully ask for the book at their local library; while adults with fond memories of the 1959 picture with James Mason and Pat Boone will look for a copy from Netflix. Rated PG.
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