Die Reise zum Mittelpunkt der Erde

I know that title sounds a bit rough, but i did not hate this movie. quite the opposite in fact. i'm actually surprised in how much i enjoyed this movie. i really only rented it for the 3-D, but you know what? i had a lot of fun. and honestly, that was the best movie i've seen Brendan Frasier in since "the mummy". Brendan really is a lot better in action films then he is in comedy or romances. he should stick to action.

The film was a good time all in all. The characters weren't annoying as hell, it was a cute PG plot, and it taught some fun lessons.

I've been looking on the board and seeing that there's a lot of "that couldn't happen!" and "this movie is childish!" OK. look. it's a PG movie called "Journey to the Center of the Earth". It isn't a political documentary. Suspend your disbelief, sit back and enjoy it. Unless of course you want to hand me your 30 page dissertation on why Doc Brown's time machine is an impossibility. If you're not one of those sad lonely people, you'll find this movie quite a lot of fun. Not an epic masterpiece, but a lot of fun.

If i had to voice one problem is that they need to stop giving anaglyph glasses. it kind of hurts your eyes after a while. They have good 3-d glasses, don't they? they give them out in Florida for Terminator and the Muppet show, so why don't they include those? that would definitely make the movie better in my opinion.

Other than my hurting eyes though, this movie was a nice break from monotonous depressing dark plot based films.

With a fun premise, tongue in cheek humor, and decent 3-D effects, Journey to the center of the earth gets 7 glowing birds, out of 10

Don't go and see 'Journey' if you're expecting either a solid interpretation of the Jules Verne novel, or a thrilling summer blockbuster. 'Journey' is light hearted fun, but as a piece of light hearted fun, it excels.

The story centres (no pun intended) around publicly abhorred professor Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser) whose lab in New York faces closure just as things are getting exciting (cough cough) with his research into volcanic something or other, a project derived from his obsession with the unexplained disappearance of his late brother. To further complicate things Trevor gets landed with his smart alec techy nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson) and thus premieres a generic 'odd couple' relationship as the stuffy academic trades words and yo-yos with his post-mod companion.

Anyway, as soon as this gets underway, Trevor finds an excuse to jet off to Iceland where for one reason or another he descends two hundred feet into a volcano and after one big 3D disaster leads to another, he finds himself (big shock) at the centre of the earth, wherein he, Sean and annoying Icelandic guide Hannah (some unknown Icelandic actress making her unconvincing debut) encounter all manner of 3D perils and wonders including carnivorous plants, troublesome fish, massive great geyser thingies, and the impending doom threatened by an up and coming volcanic thermal heating up whereby everything gets roasted...oh, and a dinosaur...he's cool :D.

The good stuff? The storyline is a lot more cut to the chase than I've made it sound, the 3D effects are cracking, and despite being landed with the name 'Trevor', Brendan Fraser makes for a great lead. I've always been a casual fan of his since seeing the Mummy as a child, and whilst this role isn't much of a challenge for the erstwhile Fraser, he commands the screen when he's present and is thoroughly entertaining throughout. The kid who plays Sean is decent support as well. There are some truly great visuals, and although the mine cart chase disappoints, the raft ride does not; it's a visual feast and a great action piece that would be perfect if not for the 'we're on a fishing trip' line thrown in by Hutcherson.

The bad stuff? Hannah Asgeirsson is cringeworthy as the love interest/ guide figure, a character it is impossible to like or even find interesting. The storyline is pretty predictable, and in terms of story and set pieces, 'Journey' doesn't really offer anything that hasn't been done before, and often better. A couple of the jokes fall flat, and the 3D glasses are pretty annoying, although probably not nearly as bad as the film would be in 2D; I can only assume it loses much of its merit.

So 'Journey' is never going to compete with previous genre flicks such as Jurassic Park, but it never really sets out to, which is the salvation of the film; everything is done with a casual wink to the audience; we're all in on the joke that the film is a bit naff. Whilst you're in the cinema it's great fun, but on reflection 'Journey' is little more than a memory jog of better films. Go for the 3D cinema experience, but don't bother with the DVD, because the more you watch this, it's probably going to become more and more tired.

Ultimately, Journey to the centre of the earth is a solid family film that thankfully never tries to be anything more. Good summer fun, and the finest effects you'll see this summer.

A scientist(Brendan Fraser, also producer) and his niece (Josh Hutcherson) undergo an hazardous voyage to find clues of his father, along the way they face numerous dangers and risks. During the trip, the scientific and his niece hire a wealthy scout (Anita Briem) to find the father who disappeared several years earlier during an expedition to a center of the earth at Iceland. The trio descend into deep caverns and discover a tunnel-rail system leading to the planet's center. They have to deal with lightning storms, endure torrential floods, volcanic eruptions, prehistoric animals and discover a forest of giant mushrooms, but not the lost city of Atlantis as happens in the classic novel.

This spectacular adaptation is a special version of the Jules Verne adventure yarn . There're rip-roaring action, spirit of adventure, derring-do, thrills and results to be pretty entertaining. It's a great fun with nice special effects , breathtaking set decoration and impressive art direction but with excessive use of computer generator. Lavish utilization of 3D cinematography and superb, imaginative soundtrack . Highlights of the voyage includes a roller-coaster trip, strong storms, magnetic rocks, a terrifying odyssey in sailing, prehistoric reptile, a Tiranosaurius Rex, and many others.

Other renditions about this know story are the following : Classic version (1959) by Henry Levin with James Mason as Lindenbrook, Pat Boone,Diane Baker and Arlene Dahl; Spanish version by Juan Piquer with Kenneth Moore, and TV adaptation by George Miller with Treat Williams, Jeremy London and Bryan Brown.

I was not dreading watching Journey To The Center Of The Earth, but at the same time I was not thinking it was going to be the best movie ever either. I was simply ready to be entertained. Well, when it started up, I immediately became interested, because it looked enjoyable and entertaining and I was being fair on it, no matter how much it was against my nature to try and bash it.

After awhile, as the movie continued on, I got a little restless, and at points flat out bored and uninterested. It was a good movie, but a lot of things were just unneeded and uninteresting, and also they tried to hard to make a cool, awesome, totally tricked out film when they should have focused a little bit more on plot and character structure. (They tried to hard to please the audience, as far as I could tell.) The performances were decent enough, I should add, as well.

Well, overall, it was a nice, enjoyable film, but it is nothing that I would just praise down to the very core of the film, or really care to watch again, because there is not much that absolutely "wows" you throughout the movie, but it entertained, and there were some pretty cool action scenes I guess. Watch with an open mind.

Plain and simple: this is a kids' movie. If you're an adult and you saw the previews with some genuinely-scary looking scenes and thought, "Wow, this looks cool" - be warned. Some of it is cool, but most of it isn't.

Most of it is Brendan Franser doing his "George Of the Jungle" routing of yelling and screaming, either trying to find this teen kid or in terror as he falling for being chased by something. In fact, the last half hour of this film will give you headache with all the yelling by all three major parties.

I didn't realize this film was out in 3-D. I saw it on a regular DVD and the special-effects, in 2-D obviously, looked so cheesy. Some of these scenes looked like they were right out of the Tarzan movies of the 1930s with the obvious screen in the background and the actors on a stage in front of it. So, see this 3-D, if possible, otherwise expect it took look pretty bad.

Teen girls in the audience will like Josh Hutcherson ("Sean"), a handsome young kid who looks ad sounds good, until he gets excited and his voice cracks. Ah, the joys of puberty. Meanwhile, teen boys will get an eyeful with Anita Briem ("Hannah"), a very attractive new face. Actually, Anita has a lot of credibility in this role, playing a character living in Iceland who, in real life, was born and raised in Iceland before moving to England at the age of 16.

As for the story, it's a re-make of the famous Jules Verne story about discovering a whole new world (without people) in the center of the earth, complete with amazing birds and frightening animals and fish. Despite the dumbness of the dialog, the first hour was watchable. As with many adventure stories, though, it gets totally carried in the final third of the film.

In all, the movie is fairly entertaining to the degree that adults wouldn't be bored if they took their kids. It's not really offensive except for one stupid play-on-words which is totally unnecessary. Other than that, this is a very clean film safe for kids of most age. There are parts, however, that are way too scary for the real young ones.