Journey to the Center of the Earth

Have you ever wondered if a Tyrannosaurus rex skull would float on boiling water? How about whether or not technological equipment will work after being underwater for a few minutes? Have you ever been in the middle of escaping perilous situations in 115°F heat and found that two of you aren't sweating, but one of you is profusely? Well, Journey to the Center of the Earth tells us that the answer to all of those inquiries is a resounding yes. Good thing too; that T. rex skull isn't gonna ride itself.

It was a bit strange to see Brendan Fraser in two movies around released around the same time after he hadn't been in anything in recent memory, but it was kind of a nice surprise. I know most people think he's a cheesy faux-action hero, but when he does movies like these, I think he sees himself as that, too, which makes it bearable. Besides, if you're gonna go see a movie where the main character's dialogue mostly consists of one-liners in response to set-up questions yelled at the top of his lungs due to the extreme direness of every situation they're in, it might as well be a Brendan Fraser movie. At least he's good at yelling. And those one-liners are almost excusable coming from him.

Anyway, Journey to the Center of the Earth revolves around Trevor Anderson (Fraser), a down-on-his-luck university volcanologist still grieving the death of his brother Max, ten years prior. He goes in to work one day to get down to business only to find his boss ready to shut down his brother's lab. On top of that, he gets home only to realize that his nephew, Sean (Josh Hutcherson), is coming to visit, and Trevor's house is a mess. After finding some notes in a Jules Verne book of Max's (guess which one...), Trevor is compelled to travel to Iceland and find a man named Asgeirsson, another volcanologist, which is the catalyst for the resulting adventure. I don't wanna spill all the beans here, keep a few beans to myself just in case readers (HA! Like we have any) don't want no spoilers.

There are a lot of negative things I could list about this movie... so I guess I will. First of all, it felt very rushed. Normally for a movie of this adventurous magnitude to be rushed wouldn't be that big of a deal, but that's only because most movies like that tend to be long enough already. This movie is 92 minutes. There was really no reason for this movie to be as rushed as it was. Secondly, and this may sound kinda dumb 'cause it's basically the fundamental definition of a story, but the entire movie is basically one event after another. It's either the result of, or, the cause of the rushedness that brings the movie down a bit. There's no downtime, no in-between points, it's just all one specific event after another. Alright, that sounded better in my head. Third, it's full of adventure clichés, but this is to be expected, and I won't go into them as doing that would almost be cliché in itself at this point. Also, there's the issue of the little blue bird. While underground, the explorers stumble upon some bio-luminescent birds, and one even helps Sean get out of a few binds. It's like something from the "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." My last negative comment is the fact that while bad things occur quite often in this movie, they don't occur until it's... "okay" for them to occur, like in Looney Tunes when Wile E. Coyote runs off a cliff and doesn't begin to fall until he realizes he's standing in mid-air. All of these things detract from the quality of the movie, but somehow Journey to the Center of the Earth emerged with a bit of dignity left.

It's wasn't amazing, but I have to admit that this movie kept me at least 85% entertained. They filmmakers played it smart by not having the movie be a complete film adaptation of the book, but rather using the book as a reference. The movie alludes to "Vernians," people who believe that Jules Verne was actually writing truths instead of stories, and that scientists have just not figured out how to make his books a reality yet. This concept was one of the things in the movie that kept my interest, and putting it in was definitely a good move as it provides some mysteriousness, and who doesn't like a good cult story, right? Another aspect that kept me interested in the movie was the beautiful views, fake as they may be. Some of the places they go just look fantastic.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a great movie for kids and adults. Not necessarily teens, but if you're not too closed-minded, give it a try. For younger kids, it's at least a good source of inspiration and science-fiction since most children aren't big on Verne, and may even inspire them to pick up a book or two. Aside from all the super-unrealistic stuff, this movie was entertaining. Brendan Fraser fans will have no problem accepting this movie, and Jules Verne fans probably won't find it too bad, either.

4/7