Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
Directed by Brad Peyton
Sean Anderson partners with his mom's boyfriend on a mission to find his grandfather, who is thought to be missing on a mythical island.
29 connections found
View:
29 films that influenced Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
What critics say influenced Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
Childhood literary classics that include Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” and Jules Verne’s “The Mysterious Island” inform the story in a sidelong fashion.
Also, writers Brian Gunn, Mark Gunn, and Richard Outten have obviously never, ever read The Mysterious Island, Gulliver's Travels, or Treasure Island, though they clearly did see the 1961 Mysterious Island movie with Ray Harryhausen effects, given the number of references to that movie pepper the film (of which giant bees are merely the most obvious).
Based loosely on Jules Verne’s "The Mysterious Island," 'Journey 2' is thankfully not as spectacularly awful as director Brad Peyton’s last kiddy-oriented sequel, "Cats and Dogs: The Revenge Kitty of Galore."
Director Brad Peyton and writers Brian and Mark Gunn have appropriated "The Mysterious Island" – Jules Verne 's sequel to "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" – for a contemporary sequel to the 2008 film version of Verne's utterly unrelated " Journey to the Center of the Earth ."
The opening voice-over narration, distinctively intoned by Caine, describes the influence of sci-fi pioneer Jules Verne , and the film refers to a remote idyll described in his 1874 novel The Mysterious Island.
To overcome each obstacle, they not only have to be physically in shape, they also have to use their smarts and draw on clues inside of Verne's "The Mysterious Island" as well as Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island."
"Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" is kinda/sorta based on the writings of Jules Verne, in a similar vein as its predecessor, "Journey to the Center of the Earth."
In fact, it is a loose sequel to "Journey to the Center of the Earth," a 2007 epic that was apparently seen by many, remembered by few (trust me, you hadn't given it a second thought since it originally came out and you know it) and is perhaps best known now for being one of the films that sparked the current 3D revival.
Director Brad Peyton and writers Brian and Mark Gunn have appropriated "The Mysterious Island" – Jules Verne 's sequel to "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" – for a contemporary sequel to the 2008 film version of Verne's utterly unrelated " Journey to the Center of the Earth ."
The premise was fresher in 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was a cleverer movie all around.
Childhood literary classics that include Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” and Jules Verne’s “The Mysterious Island” inform the story in a sidelong fashion.
Advertisement
There’s a few scenes that seem to have been lifted (with less finesse) out of “Avatar,” but for the most part, the film sticks to the wonder and awe of the digital world here.
The visual quality of "Journey 2" is such that while Peyton and company filmed on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, the results resemble "H.R. Pufnstuf" or the AMC theater chain's concessions promo, the one where placid teenagers hoisting 188-ounce cups of Coke are transported to a world akin to "Avatar."
With all the incredibly realistic CGI created landscapes and settings we've seen in movies these last couple of years ( "Avatar," "Thor" ), it becomes a challenge to equal or exceed state-of-the-art standards.
Against backgrounds that invoke "Avatar," they fight giant lizards and fly on giant bees, while searching for Captain Nemo's ship.
There are some fantasy films like "Avatar" and the "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" sagas in which enormous sums of money have been dedicated to creating astonishingly detailed worlds that almost feel real.
The breezy and fun Journey to the Center of the Earth helped reintroduce audiences to the latest incarnation of 3D back in the pre- Avatar days of 2008, and its healthy $240 million box office haul has paved the way for this second Jules Verne-inspired family adventure.
Far less charming is the reliance on goo and poo jokes, a slightly pervy fascination with Hudgens crawling around in short-shorts and a score that seems less like an homage to John Williams’ “Jurassic Park” work than a wicked parody that had the jokes removed.
It’s why Journey 2 can steal all its action sequences from far superior movies -- Jurassic Park , Return of the Jedi -- and its score from The Lord of the Rings .
The aforementioned lizard attack is almost as intense as the T-Rex attack in the original "Jurassic Park."
Directed by Brad Peyton ("Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore") with an eye toward replicating "Jurassic Park" and Indiana Jones, it's unapologetically derivative and feels hastily assembled.
It's The Goonies meets Jurassic Park, but with no palpable sense of danger or tangible baddie it comes across a tad Spielberg-lite.
But the action here consists exclusively of barely reheated sequences from better films, and the dialogue's allusions to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" serve only to remind us what we're missing and to remind us indirectly that, where that film turned little-known character actors into near-icons, this one takes the reliably great Luis Guzman and forces him to cower and whine as if he were auditioning for the "Three Stooges" remake.
Along the way, we are treated to sights that we have seen before (a cavern collapse right out of the opening of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and a forest chase that is a direct lift of the one admittedly cool part of "Return of the Jedi"), sights that have been seen too often in the commercials (such as Hank popping his pecs to show Sean how to attract Kailani, overlooking the fact that her pecs are far more impressive and well-defined than his) and sights that few rational people would have ever dreamed that they would one day bear witness too (such as Luis Guzman getting covered with giant bird poop or The Rock singing "What a Wonderful World" with special novelty lyrics.
The story is an agreeable, scattershot affair combining notions from several of Verne's fantasy adventures with a "Swiss Family Robinson" formula of puppy love and family bonding.
Advertisement
It's not an offensively bad way to spend an hour and a half, and director Brad Peyton is exceedingly aware that he's not making an awards contender, but the narrative is nonetheless a slapdash affair as it becomes a rehash of any number of superior films, from 1985's "The Goonies," to 1989's "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," to 2005's " King Kong ."
It's The Goonies meets Jurassic Park, but with no palpable sense of danger or tangible baddie it comes across a tad Spielberg-lite.
The bees won't give stop-motion effects master Ray Harryhausen, who created the giant crab and other beasties for the 1961 "Mysterious Island," anything to worry about.