Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)
Directed by Eric Brevig
On a quest to find out what happened to his missing brother, a scientist, his nephew and their mountain guide discover a fantastic and dangerous lost world in the center of the earth.
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14 films that influenced this film
What critics say influenced Journey to the Center of the Earth
The fabulist Jules Verne meets the era of Cinemascope in the sublimely silly big-screen adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Duck lovers will be relieved to know that the 3-D adventure "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is not a remake of the 1959 picture starring Pat Boone and James Mason, in which Gertrude the duck meets an unfortunate end.
“Journey to the Center of the Earth” isn’t a straight-jacket adaptation of the Jules Verne classic, but a vague photocopy that eschews daring adventure for cheap, plastic thrills, tarted up with a sickly glaze of 3-D to help prop up the anemic screenplay.
Director
Steven Spielberg
Critics compare Journey to the Center of the Earth to 3 of Spielberg’s films.
It may end up being an inspirational movie for a ten year old like “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was for many of the adults out there.
Scenes with a stampeding dinosaur are derivative, bringing to mind Jurassic Park, and a flurry of fluttery prehistoric birds is cute, but not dazzling.
…pecial effects have come a long way since Jurassic Park, but you wouldn't know it from Journey to the Center of the Earth, whose rampaging T-Rex looks only slightly more believable than the pitiful CG creatures found in your average Sci-Fi Channel movie.
Think of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (complete with a runaway mine train) without a shred that film's wit or technical chops, and you'll come close to the Journey to the Center of the Earth experience.
But "Journey to the Center of the Earth" works because it's wholly in love with the nostalgic nature of its gimmick -- even though the technology it uses has come a long way since André de Toth (who, ironically, had only one eye) wowed audiences in 1953 with that infamous coming-right-at-ya paddle-ball effect in "House of Wax." Brevig, working from an admirably uncomplicated script (by Michael D. Weiss, Jennifer Flackett and Ed Levin), digs in and makes nifty use of the possibilities offered by modern 3-D.
Back in 1953 moviegoers willing to put on those awkward cardboard 3D glasses to watch the thriller House of Wax were treated to a wicked paddleball bouncing off the screen.
With the exception of Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," movies have handed us a range of silly permutations on "A Trip to the Moon," "Around the World in Eighty Days," "Mysterious Island," etc., and almost a dozen variations on "Journey to the Center of the Earth," the most-famous previous film version starring Pat Boone, acting and singing.
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Oscar-nominated visual effects man Eric Brevig ( Men in Black , Pearl Harbor ) makes his directorial debut with this family friendly, 3-D adventure, but instead of collapsing under thunderous CGI and fart jokes, Brevig crafts a delightfully retro entertainment, light and funny and summery.
Brevig, who supervised effects on such Spielberg productions as Hook and Men in Black, crafts a mine-car roller-coaster ride that's a straight rip from the family-action maestro (as for the rampaging T-rex, Steve's been there and done that too).
But the movie, directed by visual-effects pro Eric Brevig (whose credits include pictures like "Men in Black" and "Pearl Harbor" ) does acknowledge where the idea came from in the first place: The story makes reference to "Vernians," obsessive types who believe that Verne's work is filled with secret codes and clues that can lead them to wondrous real-life discoveries.
But the movie, directed by visual-effects pro Eric Brevig (whose credits include pictures like "Men in Black" and "Pearl Harbor" ) does acknowledge where the idea came from in the first place: The story makes reference to "Vernians," obsessive types who believe that Verne's work is filled with secret codes and clues that can lead them to wondrous real-life discoveries.
Oscar-nominated visual effects man Eric Brevig ( Men in Black , Pearl Harbor ) makes his directorial debut with this family friendly, 3-D adventure, but instead of collapsing under thunderous CGI and fart jokes, Brevig crafts a delightfully retro entertainment, light and funny and summery.
In his feature directorial debut, veteran visual-effects supervisor Eric Brevig (an Oscar nominee for "Pearl Harbor" and "Hook") reveals a brisk sense of let's-get-on-with-it efficiency.
Little kids brought up on “Shrek” and “The Incredibles” have nothing in their memory banks to compare to this movie’s air of resolute fustiness, although Disney used to churn out earnest live-action epics like this one as late as the late 1970s.
Fraser plays strong as Trevor, but he’s a blend of Indiana Jones and Dr. Robert Langdon from The Da Vinci Code.
As the title implies, the journey takes the trio into the Earth's core, where they find themselves in one cliffhanging situation after another, challenged by prehistoric monsters and intellectual puzzles right out of "National Secret" and "The Da Vinci Code."
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Playing like "The Goonies" without the wit or resonance, the film skips from set-piece to set-piece as the characters vaguely react to the amazing sights they behold and hairy predicaments they must overcome.
Last year's Beowulf employed 3-D with a certain fairy-tale savvy, but Journey is just the new version of a 1950s comin'-at-ya roller coaster, with a tape measure, trilobite antennae, and giant snapping piranha thrust at the audience.
Last fall’s 3-D “Beowulf” was a rousing if campy spectacle, and more 3-D films are coming.
More recently, I saw Robert Zemeckis' computer-animated "Beowulf" at the Paradiso, also in the digital 3D process.
And it's not out to 3-D you to death, the way Robert Zemeckis ' "Beowulf" (a far more ambitious project) couldn't stop aiming all that stuff directly at your head every second of every scene.
Journey to the Center of the Earth, along with other recent movies such as Beowulf, is meant to sell us on this notion.
Seeking to build upon Beowulf's breakthrough, Journey to the Center of the Earth takes the 3-D ball and runs with it.